HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESUS!!!

Happy Birthday Jesus from 4 Hall Girls

Lizzie and Millie love birthdays so they ask every day if it is Jesus' birthday yet! It has been great to be able to use that to focus on the real meaning of CHRISTmas! May we never forget WHY we celebrate CHRISTmas. I have to remind myself of this a lot! Satan does all he can to change our focus and steal our joy especially when we are focusing on Christ most.

I will not even go into what it took for me to do Christmas cards this year because just thinking about it might steal my Christmas spirit! So I can laugh about it I thought I would share some "outtakes"

Sallie says, "mama, enough already!!!"


And my personal favorite! I think Sallie is ready to hurt Elleigh!
Photo session #2 after church-worse than photo session #1
"Can we please just run away from you?"


Lizzie, Millie, and I went to our small group MOPS party several weeks ago and our discussion group leader was so sweet to allow us to make ornaments and then she fired them for us. I love them!!! The girls were so sweet making them and I treasured that time with just the 3 of us.


I made the star
They made Sallie and Elleigh a snowman and a candy cane but somehow the candy cane pic did not download.

We head to AL in a few days so I will not be blogging but I will be back soon with LOTS of pics.

Wishing you all a wonderful time of celebrating JESUS' BIRTHDAY!!!

Whirlwind Week

This picture of Lizzie really suits our week! WILD and CRAZY!!!

This was made today before Discovery School. Her class wore their pj's which she loved and then they all wore Santa hats which she did not love. She liked the hat but she said it hurt her head and well she IS a princess so... I have no idea what she was doing here! I sent her and Elleigh out to the porch to take some pics while I finished getting ready and this is what I got! Bless their hearts, I make them freeze to get pics since my flash will not work. I am about to resolve that though. I can't get my dream camera but I am going to get something that I can take pics with and not freeze my children to do it!!! WM has some really good deals on a few Nikons right now and I think I am going to switch to Nikon. I have loved my Kodak but it is my second and neither have lasted long.

I do not have any pics of Millie on her party day because she is sick and could not go. She began running fever on Monday and I kept holding out thinking it was a virus that would eventually end. I ended up taking her today and they said it was viral but also double ear infection with 1 ear being really bad. This is her first ear infection. She has been a sick girl but she seems to be getting over the viral part and we have meds for the ears so hopefully she will be back to new in no time. She loves to go to the Dr. I really think it is because she gets to go somewhere by herself so it is special to her. She told me on Monday as soon as she got sick that I needed to take her to the Dr and she got MAD when I told her we were not going then. She loves medicine even more than the Dr. She was getting tired of Motrin so I was very relieved the Dr gave her meds because I would have never heard the end of that!!!

Today was our second trip to the pediatrician this week. I took Sallie in on Monday for an UTI. They said her counts were very elevated. UTI's make her so sick. She threw up like crazy on Monday morning and was running a high temp. Thankfully the meds kicked in quickly and she was feeling better by Tuesday. I am so thankful that she does not react to Bactrum anymore because it does help her much more than anything else.

We had to reschedule therapy on Monday since Sallie was sick so she went today and will go tomorrow. She is doing well. She is slightly (or maybe more than slightly) stubborn so she means she is not going to do what she does not want to do! It really is funny (but you know we can't laugh as much as we want to!)

It is hard to believe it is 1 week until Christmas! I still have a good bit left to do. My plans this week were to get lots done so next week would be carefree. Well, that didn't happen but my babies have needed me so that's OK. Everything else will get done or if it doesn't then it just doesn't.

It is also hard to believe that in 1 week from Saturday the girls and I will be flying to AL!!! YES, I said flying! Last week A called to ask me what I thought about flying home. My response, "well since that is not an option, why are you asking me that?" We never think about flying us all home because of the expense. However, our God not only meets all our needs but sometimes we get surprises and this was a huge one! Someone (who does not want us to know who they are) wanted to fly us all home for Christmas!!! I just can't tell you how much this has touched us! It is an amazing blessing. We had discussed the girls and I driving and A flying so that we could stay longer but we decided we did not need to spend the money for him to fly so we were not going to spend less than a week at home. When 2 full days of that are in a car that is a short time. So, by us flying this allows us to spend several more days. A will fly in a few days after us and then we will all return on the same day. Prayers are appreciated as I will be flying alone with all the girls. A flies back on the same day as us but on a different flight. The person contacted a guy A works with and he was the go between on the whole deal. No one (except our families) even knew we were not getting to stay long or anything about our trip so this was a total God thing! I get chill bumps just thinking about it! I hope that I will spend this holiday season reflecting on the true meaning of CHRISTmas and the many, many, many things we have to be thankful for because CHRIST was not only born but died for us and loves us more than we can EVER understand!

P.S. I miss blogging and hope to be back to blogging more often soon! The girls do and say so much every day and because I am not blogging as much I forget!

Broken and Busy

I am not enjoying not blogging very often! Not only is my computer dying, but my camera is broken! Yes, my camera and my computer. This is not easy for me!!! My camera will work but the flash will not and even on pics that do not need a flash they still are not quite right. You can only imagine how I am handling not having a working camera. Christmas cards should be in the mail eventually! I borrowed my friend Rebecca's camera today to take the pics . Thanks Rebecca!

We have been unusually busy with holiday stuff and life. I decided this year to attempt to do something special and Christmas related each day of December leading up to Christmas Day. Of course, no pics :( We have made Christmas cookies, somedays we just read a Christmas story, etc. Today our MOPS discussion group had our Christmas party and our discussion group leader makes pottery so she allowed us to make ornaments with our kids. We had a lot of fun doing that. Maybe I will be able to post some pics of them once we get them back. They were so cute!

A is almost finished with this semester! One more to go!!! He is itching to get several things started at church and will begin some of those in January. It seems strange that we are already looking at dates for VBS. Summer will be here before we know it. We are also looking at dates for another trip to Africa this summer. A begins a radio spot in Jan as well so lots going on but he is loving all this "going on" and I am loving watching him be able to do what he has been called to do.

For some reason I have not been in the decorating mood this year. No reason, just not as into it this year. I think it is maybe the feeling of having 2 houses or something. It is strange but it is like I am already disconnecting myself from this house. Weird, I know! We did finally get our tree completely decorated this week. I was not as picky about it as usual and pretty much let the girls do it and they loved it and are very proud of it. I only put up 1 tree this year as opposed to 4! I do already have plans for our new house next year though and look forward to entertaining in our new home next Christmas.

The girls LOVE the tree. They are constantly looking at it! They have moved lots of ornaments around!Because I know you all wants pics on my posts I took these yesterday morning as the girls were on their way to Discovery School. Bless their hearts it was cold and I had to take them outside to have light for the camera! I did it for you all!!!

This is the only smile I can get from Millie these days but this is classic Millie!

Too funny!

Sallie's therapy is keeping us busy as well. She is doing great in therapy.We participate as much as she does so it is tiring! It is as much a learning process for us as for her. Please pray that we will catch on quickly and always be mindful of how we are supposed to interact with her. It is difficult to train yourself to always be in teaching mode for Sallie which is different than normal conversation. This week she had testing and 2 days of therapy so 3 trips this week. Yesterday she had some booth testing with the BAHA and she did really well. It appears that she is hearing a good bit better with the BAHA band than with the aids. Major Praise! I know we have LOTS of people praying for her. I know it! We feel it! So, the audiologist is trying to get insurance to cover the band and then we (along with her ENT and the audiologist) will more than likely proceed with the surgically implanted BAHA which of course first involves getting insurance to cover it. This will mean several surgeries. As far as the method of communication, we will proceed in therapy as we are now and then see how things go from here. The big deal is that according to the test she had yesterday she is hearing a lot more of the speech sounds with the BAHA on. Another major praise is that she has become comfortable with both the audiologist and speech therapist which makes life easier on all of us! Please continue to pray!!! Whatever happens we have a long road ahead of us but we are ready!!!

THANKFUL for Thanksgiving!

I know this post is late and I have some pics of our Thanksgiving but I do not have the time or energy to try and get this computer to upload them so... you get a post without pics. First of all we did have a great time of spending time with each other and LOTS of food! The first few holidays we were not with family were so hard for me (and I still get very homesick on holidays) but after a couple of holidays of sitting around feeling sorry for myself I thought I just have to make the best of this. It is what it is and this is not fair to Aaron or to the girls or to myself for that matter so we started our own traditions and we all look forward to those every year. It is much better than sitting around crying all day!!! So, this Thanksgiving was no different. We did not have guests this year (which I missed) but we just relaxed and wore our comfy clothes (and no makeup!).

One of our traditions each Thanksgiving is to make a list of the things we are most thankful for that particular year. It is a time for us to stop and be thankful and to realize just how much we have to be thankful for. This year this tradition meant more to me than it ever has. It has been a tough month or so. I haven't mentioned anything because I just haven't been able to talk about it. I wrote on here a while back that we had taken Sallie for a speech evaluation and received very good news. The therapist thought 6 months of therapy a couple of times a week and we should be good to continue therapy at home and all would be well. A little over a week after that appt I received a call on a Thurs. nt from the speech therapist. There had been a mix-up with Sallie's files and another child's hearing tests had gotten in Sallie's file. So, she was basing everything on those tests in giving her plan for therapy and the future. She informed me that Sallie was not hearing about 1/2 of the consonants (aided) which means if she can't hear them she probably will never be able to say them. She said that we needed to proceed with a total communication approach (using sign, verbal communication, and possibly devices to allow her to communicate with us). I have to tell you I was numb. I told her I did not understand why we had never been told this before, etc. I really do not remember a lot of the conversation after that point but I did tell her we needed to talk in person. So the next week A and I went to meet with the speech therapist and the audiologist. The night I got the call I completely lost it. I have not been that torn apart in a really long time. I felt that all the hope I had for her had been snatched from me and that everything we had worked so hard for was all in vain. I spent a lot of time just telling the Lord how I felt about it all. As usual, because our Lord is wonderful and He gave me Aaron to share this responsibility, Aaron was holding it together. I am always amazed that we lose it at different times. The Lord gives us each other to be strong for the other because if we were both a mess at the same time things would really be bad! For the next week although I did think about our meeting often I did not dwell on it and I think handled that time pretty well. However, on the way to the meeting was a different story. That was a very hard drive for me. We got to the meeting and it went really well considering what we were being told. They told us they were not giving up on Sallie. The deal is that her latest tests are showing she is not hearing a lot of the consonants that are necessary for speech that is good enough for communication. The change from the past is that it very likely that when they removed everything from the middle ear it has affected her hearing negatively. She is wearing much higher powered aids now and is responding so much better but it still could be that there are a lot of speech sounds she simply is not getting. The issue is her testing is obviously from behavioral responses and we are not sure how accurate that is. They both were very sensitive with us but factual. Aaron lost it several times which in turn caused them to nearly lose it. I mean the dad is sitting there crying and telling you how badly he wants everything for her, it is heart breaking. A BAHA (bone anchored hearing aid) is a possibility however the audiologist does not seem to think she will benefit more from the BAHA. It is a surgically implanted device and of course insurance does not cover it. We applied for insurance to cover it one time in the past and it was denied. There is what they call a temporary BAHA which they wear on the outside and the audiologist is beginning the process of getting insurance to cover that. This would be for her to use any time she is not able to wear her aids. If we need this and insurance will not cover it I know Sallie will get it somehow. The Lord has provided in great ways time and time again and I just am not going to stress over this one. If she needs it, HE will make it happen! We also have testing scheduled to try and see if she would benefit from the BAHA as well as some more extensive testing to determine exactly what sounds she is or is not hearing. We greatly appreciate your prayers through this testing. We pray that she is calm and that she does indeed respond when is aware of a sound. At times the fear takes over and I know she is not responding accurately. So, our greatest prayer is that she respond accurately so that we have the best possible info to work with. We do begin therapy 2 times a week beginning this Friday. Basically the therapist is going to try several means of communication and we are going to figure out what works best for Sallie. Aaron, Elleigh, and I will begin sign language classes in Jan so that we can use sign to the extent we need to with her. We are not giving up! We are still going to do everything we can to do what is best for her-whatever that means. We know that we serve a God who is able to do anything and if it is His plan for her to verbally communicate then she will and if He has other plans for her then He will be glorified through that and we will accept that. I know this post is already so long but this is my journal and I know we have some prayer warriors who read this and we need all the prayers we can get. We will be traveling about 30 miles each way for therapy 2 days a week and one day we have to be there early and will have to fight traffic so our travels each week is another prayer. Just pray, please!

All of this to say, that this year I am more THANKFUL for Thanksgiving than ever before. I was forced to think about the things I have to be THANKFUL for (and it was at a time I really needed to be forced) and there is so much I have to be thankful for that it was difficult to come up with a list that was not incredibly long. No matter how tough life seems right now I am THANKFUL.
I have said this a million times before but I will say it again. I can never thank God enough for giving me my husband. I can't imagine dealing with all this with any one other than Aaron. As hard as this all may be, we draw closer together through it all because we draw closer to God.
I am thankful for friends and family who accept Sallie. I will be honest the older she gets the harder her acceptance becomes. I have had several incidents lately in public of people looking at her like she was crazy because she tried to "talk" to them. It upsets me so badly I can't explain it and I just want to tell them what I think but I know that God made her and it doesn't matter what they think. She is His and He has given her to me for now!
I am thankful for a church that has taken us in and is so good to us and that God has placed us there. There are so many who wait so long to have their first full time church and we feel very blessed that God has led us there before Aaron graduates.
I am thankful for all my girls. They are all so different and have different strengths and weaknesses and am thankful that God entrusted them all to us! They all bring me joy every day!
I am thankful for provisions in so many ways.
I am thankful for life and for all the things that Sallie is able to do that we once thought she might not be able to.

When Sallie was in the NICU they took her picture and made cards for the parents which said Happy Thanksgiving from your little blessing. Sallie was stronger than they ever knew and we were home with her before Thanksgiving but that card still hangs on my fridge as a daily reminder of my blessings and of how strong she is, and of how far she has come. I need to see that. I need to remember to find what I have to be THANKFUL for every day not just on Thanksgiving!

A Special Night!

First of all I am alive and I am not sick but my computer is very sick and on the edge of death so that is the reason for the long break in blogging. I have done lots of different things to try and do this post but I could never get my pics uploaded but I am finally getting it done.

Months ago Elleigh came to us and told us that she wanted a purity ring. We knew her desires to remain pure until marriage and we have been discussing these issues for years with her. We have taught her that is the way God designed it and that is what He desires. We are very open with her. We recently had a MOPS speaker who spoke to us concerning talking to our kids about sex and he told us do it early and often and I think that is the approach we have taken. I pray we are doing it the right way and that most importantly it is effective and in a healthy God pleasing manner. She told us she wanted the ring as a symbol of her commitment and we felt that she understood the seriousness of that commitment but we wanted to make sure that she understood it was so much more than a ring. So, for the next few months we talked more with her and we came to the conclusion that she did fully understand this decision and how difficult it would be but all worth it. We got her a James Avery silver band that is engraved with True Love Waits and has a cross on it. We decided we would surprise her when we gave it to her but knew that would not be easy. We wanted to both take her out to dinner and give it to her but we knew she would suspect something if we told her we were doing that. She really wanted to go to the premier of New Moon at midnight. She has never been to a midnight showing and she wanted to do that. I agreed to take her but her daddy really wanted to go with us so I thought that would be the perfect night to give her the ring. I just told her we were going to eat a late dinner before the movie and she suspected nothing! It was a wonderful sweet night. We each wrote her letters that we gave to her with her ring and we cried (her daddy actually cried more than me!) Those of you who read our blog and pray with us and for us, please pray for Elleigh in this decision. It in not an easy one. We pray for her to be able to fight the temptation, we pray for her future husband to be pure, we pray for the time that she may have to wait for the man God has planned for her.

Opening her ring
Ell with her proud mama

Ell with her proud daddy outside of Macaroni Grill. This is where she chose. The first time A and I ate at MG I was pregnant with Elleigh. We had gone to a Dr's appt and it was Valentine's Day and we waited 2 1/2 hrs to eat! I still remember what I was wearing that night. Hard to believe that baby I was carrying is making these kinds of decisions!
New Moon was good and the midnight experience was fun. The line was unreal but it moved pretty fast and of course we already had our tickets. We got out around 2:30 am and it was storming outside and we were parked a long way from the exit. There is no where to go and there are about 4,000 people trying to get out of there. It was crazy. We finally made it to the car and did not get struck by lightening! The evidence of how wet we were!
Not a dry spot on us...

It was such a special night in so many ways!

Our First Born PRINCESS!

What happened to our first born princess's smocked dresses and big hair bows??? Apparently they have been replaced by these items... Just the sight of this on her bed frazzled me a little (OK a lot!!!)
Friday night Elleigh attended the Princess Ball which is an event hosted by Dr. Richard Ross (founder of True Love Waits) and his wife. The girls dress up and the emphasis is on being God's princess, how they should be treated, purity, etc. It is a wonderful opportunity that I am thankful Elleigh was able to be a part of. Dr. Ross is a phenomonal speaker, youth leader, and educator. This year Aaron has taken the time to disciple Elleigh one on one at church on Wed nts and they have training sessions with Dr. Ross each week before discipling. His wife, Lajuana teaches 7th grade girls Sunday School at Wedgwood which Elleigh is not there for but she has been able to attend some things that Mrs. Ross has led. Ell and I had "a BALL" getting her stuff all together to wear and getting her all dressed, despite the fact that we bought 3 dresses before she was satisfied! What can I say? She is mine!!!

Ell getting ready! It has been a long time since we curled her hair this much. I love it!

She's ready and BEAUTIFUL!!! I might be a little partial! Notice her pic hanging behind her that was taken on her 1st birthday. Enough said about that!

Full length shot
Our 1st of 4 princesses. I really am having a hard time with her growing up so fast. It is neat to watch her become a young woman but it is scary. Being announced by Dr. Ross (all decked out in his Southwestern regalia). The boy is only an escort!!!

She had a great time! She loved being all dressed up and most importantly she learned a lot about her relationship with God as a young woman. I pray that she is all God would have her to be and that she always remembers these truths that are being taught to her. We love you PRINCESS but HE loves you even more!

Just another Fabulous Fashion Friday!

The girls went all out today! What is it about Fridays??? There is Millie with her shades that she told me she was going to wear all day (and she has!), then there is Sallie with a dress under her hoodie and pants, then Ell sporting the really curly hair (we had just taken her hair out of rollers for the Princess Ball tonight) with pj pants and t shirt, and then Lizzie modeling her 3rd swimsuit of the day!

Wednesday Wisdom

Millie: "Mommy hold me!" (loudly)

Millie: "Mommy hooollllddddd ME! (louder)

Me: "Millie, mommy can't hold you right now. I am ironing."

Lizzie: "Yes you can! You have another hand!" (in a very sassy tone!)

Leave it to Lizzie to tell me how I can iron and hold Millie at the same time! What was I thinking? I mean, I have 2 hands!!!

Sweet Sallie is 8!!!

It really is hard for me to believe that it has been 8 years our sweet Sallie came into our lives. Each year her birthday is a strange time for me. I reflect a lot. I am flooded by lots of emotions. I feel blessed. I feel thankful. I remember that I had no idea if she would live to be 1 much less 8. I long for more and more progress. I remember where we have been. I remember the times when life seemed so hard that I just couldn't take it anymore. I remember the strain on our marriage. I remember God using that to strengthen our marriage in an incredible way. I remember that HE used our trials to change us, to humble us, to draw us closer to Him, to touch lives in a special way. However, each year I can look back at it all and have something else to be thankful for and so I have to say that each year although I still lose it at least once I am thankful that I have that time each year to not only celebrate Sallie but to celebrate our trials. That was the title of our Sunday School lesson yesterday, "Celebrating our Trials" Really, how awesome is our GOD?! I try to never let all of that overshadow celebrating her birthday but God has used our little Sallie in such an incredible way just in our lives and I can't help but to reflect and to celebrate (with tears and laughter)!

It really has been a great year for Sallie. Not a lot of surgeries and procedures. Her aids have been in a lot more. Just over the past few weeks she has become much more verbal. It is still mostly sounds but they are resembling words. She really has matured in a lot of ways.

Sallie eating her favorite for b'fast-egg sandwhich (with LOTS of mayo) and cranberry juice!!!
Her Sun School teacher gave her this play set that had this tiara in it and she did not take it off until bedtime. These two together bring tears to my eyes. They have an amazing bond! To this day if Sallie gets sick or has to have a procedure she wants her daddy or Grandy if he is around. They have an incredible bond also. No matter how long it has been since they have seen each other last she goes right back to Grandy!
Millie and Lizzie singing Happy bday to Sallie!She loves all the attention!
Thank you God for entrusting such a sweet gift to us!
Best attempt at a shot of the 4 Hall girls!

Too SWEET for words...

Present time!!!

Every girl needs some Vera Bradley!!!

Loving the ICarly dolls

All about a tank top!

The birthday girl and her look a like! Millie looks more like her every day!

My other 2 look alikes!

She had a great day! We had planned to take her shopping on Saturday but since A got the race tickets we will do that in the next couple of weeks. She LOVES to shop and we just don't all go shopping so she will love to be able to go and buy things just for her!

I will tack this on to this post since it did happen yesterday. We were coming home from Red Springs yesterday and Elleigh was saying something about A and I making "googly eyes" at each other and she said "yall make me sick!" Millie starts screaming "NO, don't make me sick, don't make me sick!" It was hilarious!!! We had to calm her down and assure her no one was going to "make her sick!"

I actually did 2 posts today so there is another post below this one.

Hall Girls and Nascar???

Yes, the 2 oldest Hall girls went to the races! A has been to Talledega but never to Texas Motor Speedway and has always wanted to go. He was a huge Nascar fan when we first married but since he is just not as big of a fan. I guess he just doesn't have the time to be. One of the companies he buys from for work gave him 4 tickets to the Saturday race so he took Elleigh and Sallie and Elleigh's friend Taylor who is a major Nascar fan. She was going to the Sun. race with her dad but since we had an extra ticket Ell invited her to join them for the Sat. race. I think they had fun. It was an experience and that is what Elleigh was going for. I am not sure she would ever really want to go back. Sallie enjoyed all the action and watching the people! That is Sallie!

One of my favorite things about TX is how you can see for such a long distance and this picture shows that. Love this! Taylor shared her gear with Ell and Sallie. Think Taylor is a Jeff Gordon fan???

The little girls and I stayed home. I had a great time getting to spend time with just them and they loved it too! It was unbelievably quiet around here with only 2 girls! Not to say that Elleigh and Sallie are trouble but I was really amazed at how quiet it was! I think I had forgotten what it felt like with only 2 and the difference it makes when you double that number!!! I wouldn't have it any different. It is just nice to divide them occasionally!!!