18 Months

Our sweet Lizzie is 18 MONTHS OLD today! In just 6 months she will be 2. How did that happen so quickly? Was it that I was pregnant with Millie when she was 3 months old? Was it that at a year old she became a big sister? Is it that life with 4 is busy? I think it is probably a little of all of it but I can say that it does not feel like she should be 18 months old, but she is and just like all my girls I fall more in love with her everyday!

In honor of Lizzie being 18 months old today I give you 18 Lizzie facts:

1)Her favorite word is STOP! The s does not come out so well but the p is very pronounced. She says this the minute she sees Sallie no matter what Sallie is doing.

2)She points her finger when she says STOPPPPPP!

3)Another word she uses a lot is well. For instance, Lizzie where is your hair bow and her response is WELL!

4)If she sees keys of any kind or a diaper bag she says GO GO

5)When Lizzie ain't happy, ain't nobody happy!

6)She loves a bath or shower (Elleigh says she is Aunt Rhonda's niece). She wants to get a bath if anyone in the house is bathing no matter how many times she has already had a bath.

7)She loves to brush her teeth

8)She dances to music of any kind. No matter what she is doing if she hears music she will stop to dance.

9)When she wants to be picked up or held she says BABY in a very desperate voice

10)When the car stops she also says BABY in desperation like we are not going to get her out.

11)She loves to throw anything in the trash

12)She is a wonderful helper. She understands pretty much anything we ask her to do and it thrills her to help (she learned well from big sister Sallie)

13)She has mastered cleaning up her toys. When we start singing the clean up song she runs just as fast as her little 18 month old feet will take her to get her toys in the play room.

14)She gives thumbs up (just like Sallie)

15)When you ask her to kiss you, she shakes her little curls no at you and then you ask her again and she shakes her head again and screeches and then when you stick your lip out she will kiss you.

16)As soon as she hears the door opening she runs to the door screaming DA DA DA DA DA very loudly!

17)She eats super slow! We wait and wait and wait on Lizzie to finish her food.

18)She is often called our challenge and she is a very needy child but her charm is hard to resist.

I am so thankful to be able to spend each and every day watching all of these things!

SURPRISE!!!

4 Hall Girls got a makeover!!! I wish I could take the credit-but I can't. MANY MANY THANKS to Kelly at Fabulous K Blog Designs. She is wonderful! I saw some of her work and fell in love with it. She was giving away a blog makeover. So, your comments to her entered you into the drawing. I continued to comment in hopes of winning the drawing. She mentioned on a post that she loved to do random acts of kindness such as randomly giving blog makeovers. Turns out before the drawing she decided to share some kindness with me! I have been so touched by the fact that someone would use that time and talent in making someone they don't even know a very happy woman. I love blogging and so many people have told me how much they love keeping up with us through it so I am SO excited to have a new look! THANKS KELLY!!!

Lizzie's new chair

Uncle Adam bought this chair for Lizzie when we were home and she loves it! He took Elleigh, Sallie, and Garrett with him shopping and they came back with this chair for Lizzie. She loves music so it is perfect. For any of you with kids around her age it is a really cute toy for them. I got the camera to video her and she found her sunglasses so she was a little caught up in them and she was star struck but I thought the video was still cute. I guess I would think that! Oh and that is Sallie laughing at her in the background as well as Little Einsteins on TV. The many sights and sounds of the Hall House!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

How much longer and what's next???

These are 2 questions that we get a lot lately. Lots of people asked us those questions when we were home for Christmas. It is so nice to know people really care about your lives! This is demonstrated to us over and over in so many different ways. So, since we got back from Christmas break I have been intending to do a post on this and now I am finally sitting down to do it. We have been here 3 years! WOW! When we moved here we were thinking (well more me than A) that we could be finished in 3 years-HA!!! All our Seminary friends know exactly what I mean! I remember meeting people who said oh we've been here 7 years or whatever and I was thinking what are these people doing. Well, now I know. They are trying to maintain some sanity while working, and being a spouse and parent, and keeping up with the unbelievable demands of being a Seminary student. It is just one of those situations where you have no idea until you've been there and done that. When we first got here A worked part time and was able to take more hours but it was still rough. We saw very little of him which was so hard being in a new place, etc. After less than a year he began working full time and started taking less classes. Also, after that first semester he realized that yes he had been called to Seminary and he had to do that but that he had us to take care of us as well. I have gained more respect for that man by watching him balance it all than by anything else. I also have gained a lot of insight into the pressures men feel. He struggled with what God would do with him during this phase (other than being a student), he struggled with being the provider, he struggled with making his wife and children happy after they left everything they knew, and the list goes on. I say struggled but he continues to struggle with some of these things at times, just like we all struggle. I guess what I am trying to say is that it was not until we dealt with some of those things that I became much more understanding of males and that they really do have concerns despite the stereotype given to them that they don't have a care in the world. All of that to say that this has been and continues to be quite a journey! As of right now (and I say that carefully because I am well aware that anything can happen) we have 3 semester left including the one he starts this week which is roughly a year and a half (May 2009 which seems like such a short time to us. What next? Only God knows! Some of our friends here are working up some pretty good schemes to get us to stay here. I have to say that I do love it here. OK, I said it-I love Texas. Did I really just say that? The people here are just great and we have made so many wonderful friends and we joke that we will be getting out of here as soon as we are finished with school but who knows. That did not used to be a joke, however-I was for real! The one thing wrong with being here is the distance we are from our families. Sunday afternoons still get to me, holidays still get to me, birthdays still get to me and no I am not a traitor-I still love the deep south! Always will. So, our desires are to be closer to our family (whether that means an hour east of here or in the same state). We would be thrilled to be called back to AL or even the surrounding states. If God called us to stay in this area, we would be good. This has become another home to us. The reality is God may call us much further away or He may call us closer to our families or He may want us to stay right here in this place called Texas! Another wonderful thing I have learned is there is no place like the place God calls you to be! So your prayer for us over the next year and a half can be for us to seek God's will for our lives and for it to be clear to us where He wants us and for us to not allow our personal preferences to get in the way. Another words, pray that I don't tell God I'm going to AL no matter what HE says! On a funny note, last week a friend and former pastor of ours was in town for a conference and he is the Director of Missions for one of the associations in AL and A was going to have lunch with him. A calls and says he is going to have lunch with Bro. Ken and the others at the conference (meaning a conference full of DOM's) so I say, "yes honey you go enjoy your lunch and make sure you get to know all the DOM's from AL, GA, TN, and FL!" As usual he just laughed at me! That night he said something about a DOM from Birmingham and I said oh I love Birmingham! One thing for sure I won't be saying where I won't go! I used to say I would never leave AL and well, you know the rest. I am so glad I allowed God to talk me into this! I still long for "home" but we have grown so much through this experience. Thank you all for your part in our lives. We love you all!

LAZY SUNDAY AFTERNOON

Sunday afternoons we don't do a lot. That is our time to relax as a family which is hard with the busyness of life but we try to at least lay on the couch for a while if not nap. I am not a big napper but there is just something about a Sunday afternoon nap or like today just laying on the couch and watching the Cowboys (which we won't be doing again for a while but we won't talk about that)! The girls of course are not really into laying on the couch but I did capture them laying with their daddy after they had gotten up from their naps. Lizzie as usual looks up to something!

BASKETBALL TIME AGAIN

Elleigh started this season of basketball on Saturday which last for the next couple of months. The 5th and 6th graders play full court for the first time so this is a big adjustment for all the kids. They get quite a workout practicing and playing. Elleigh was a little nervous about running the court for an hour and some new things they do at this age but she did really well and had a blast! It is so funny how she can go from such a girly girl to an athlete!

JUSTIFIED

On Sunday I was all geared up! All geared up for our family to eat better and exercise more. After all, we ate enough in AL to last us the rest of the year! Sunday is my weekly gear up day. I get geared up to spend more time with the Lord through prayer and in His word, to be a better wife, to be more patient with my girls (especially during school time) and play with them more, to be a better friend, to get organized with everything (especially my house), and the list goes on and on. So, that is Sunday and on Tuesday night:

I bake a POUND CAKE!

Please tell me someone else can feel my pain??? And it gets better-I then tell myself we have blown it for this week so we will do better next week! And I can always justify it. I had a bad day on Monday. It was our first day back to school and neither Elleigh or myself were in the best of moods, the other girls would not cooperate and on and on. We talked Monday night and decided Tuesday would be a better day and it was! So much better! Attitude really is the key! So, I thought what better way to end my day on Tuesday than with a great piece of pound cake and cup of coffee. This is just one of the justifications I came up with. I also thought about the cream cheese in the fridge that I needed to use and how it could be a surprise for my man after he had worked so hard. Forget, that I wanted it! IT WAS GREAT! Elleigh is reading over my shoulder and telling me I must include that I was also selfish! I had it in the oven when A took Ell to basketball practice and he told me that when he got back we were going to enjoy a piece with coffee after all the girls were in the bed. Those of you with kids know what I am talking about-no one is wanting your food, you don't have to stop eating to do something else, etc... So we did just that and Elleigh was not too happy about being left out. They got a piece for breakfast! OK, now I am feeling like a bad mama for giving my kids pound cake for breakfast. It was just one day-right! Next week will be better!!! Oh, and is it POUND cake because of the POUNDS you put on from eating it or is it the POUND of butter you use to make it??? I am thinking probably both!

COULDN'T RESIST

OK, I know I post LOTS of pictures but I couldn't resist these. This morning while A and the girls were waiting on me to get ready for church (which is usually the case) I asked him to take some pictures of the girls (because I don't have any-HA!). Actually some friends of ours from AL gave me a set of coasters for Christmas that you put pictures in. It is a set 0f 4-how appropriate and what better gift for someone who loves pictures as much as me. So, I needed some pictures for those and while they were waiting and the girls were dressed for church I got him to take some at different angles so I can play with them to get them to fit in the coasters. I am usually the one with the camera but A really captured Elleigh and Sallie's personalities. Lizzie was not interested in getting her picture taken but I couldn't leave her out so I am posting hers as well. The ones of Millie are some I took on Saturday. I laid her on our bed for her to watch me while I did something in our bedroom and she can now roll from back to tummy and tummy to back. She has been rolling from her tummy to back for a while now but could not get from back to tummy but she has now mastered it and when she gets on her tummy she loves it. She has always been a tummy baby. So, all of that to say that when she got on her tummy and popped that head up I had to bring out the camera!

Elleigh-The DIVA!Sallie-MISS PRISS

"OK Daddy I am too busy for this"Millie has quite the appetite lately and it is showing-LOVE THE ROLLS!

A FEW FAVORITES

These are all in the montage below but they are a few of my favorites of the girls so I wanted to post them separately.

WE'RE BACK

I have taken my biggest blogging break ever but I am back. We had a WONDERFUL time celebrating Christmas and New Years with our dear family and friends. We are reminded each time we go home of how fortunate we are to have a great family and sweet friends who take time to spend with us when we are home. It means so much to us! A had the opportunity to preach twice at our old church which thrilled him. The montage below is long. I had lots of pictures and Ell got a camera for Christmas so I had to include some of her pics as well. The way it shows these some of the pictures are cut off-sorry. On the night before we left we celebrated Christmas at our house. We pretended it was Christmas morning-complete with pj's, breakfast food and hot chocolate. The first pics are those and then there are some of A's b-day which we celebrated when we got to AL and then the rest is just random things from our trip. I actually forgot to take my camera to some of the places we visited so all our visits are not included. Enjoy! HAPPY NEW YEAR!

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