One more hunter!!!

My little boy killed his first turkey on Saturday. He was so excited, and Steve was a proud papa!

Everyone in the neighborhood stopped by to see it. Turkeys are so UGLY, but I hear very fun to hunt?

In other news, the kids' spring sports have started:) Hayley has softball on Monday& Thurs. Zach has baseball on Tues.& Friday! Wednesdays are CCD and Spring Football is on Tuesdays too! Hayley also has a Volleyball camp coming up. The key is to keep them so busy and tired they practically fall asleep in the car. No, really they love their sports and I hope they continue with it. It will hopefully keep them out of trouble during the tough years ahead.

Ally has been busy outside. We found two baby snakes the other day and my nature girl just had to keep them. She named them T-pane and Fergie! For those who don't know, she named them after singers:) She is one heavily influenced 5 year old. Ally has Kindergarten preview next Wed. She can't wait! She thinks Sam will be there too, but I explained to her that Sam will go on to First grade. She was sad!

Last night we had CCD, my second grade class had their First Confessions! We have been studying and preparing all year and they will soon have First Communion. Max is in my class this year and was so excited! I am always so amazed how quickly the kids mature after they receive their Sacraments. I think they feel more a part of things.

I have started gardening already. I am planting a ton of veggies this year. And hopefully our fruit trees produce this year, last year we had a late frost and killed all the buds! No peaches or apples:( We should have cherries soon too! Well time to clean. Later!

O Pioneer ???
Hayley went to Heritage School today! I made her an authentic pioneer lunch, the dress was borrowed from school and she has been memorizing poems and spelling words just for the special occasion.
When Hayley got home I asked how her day went and she said it was soooo BORING!!! The best part was the spelling bee because that's the only time they were allowed to talk. She said even during lunch they had to be quiet? What a strict place! I can't really believe that is how it was back in the day, it wasn't like that on Little House! Miss Beadle rocks!!!
Ally and I went to mom's today. Monica and Kari were there too, workout club was in full force today! Mom's new recumbant bike is awesome! I am determined to get into a bikini this summer, stretch marks and all:)
The electric co. was at moms all day moving the lines! The tree removers were there too, but left, so tomarrow all the trees get taken up! Mom has been taking pics and will blog them SOON(hint-hint)

New Stuff...
Meet our new furniture and our new bird TweetersIII. Emily has been asking when I'm going to blog the new furniture(boring) but she lives far far away, so I added Ally's pet Pugsley to the couch:) We got a new set(Couch, loveseat and recliner) for the upstairs and downstairs. The upstairs stuff comes next week!
Our new birdy is getting quite comfortable in its new home. The kids love him. Talking about birds:) Me and Mom are starting a new bird-watching club, if anyones interested! Mom recently purchased a new birdbath and has her feeders all set up. For more info contact mother:)

Steve and I set up a new B-ball hoop this weekend, what a project! We were up till midnight putting it all together. He wanted to set the whole thing up in the house until we realized it wouldn't fit through the door. So we did what we could and did the rest the next day. This will definately be the place to be until summer.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!

BIRDS...

On March 26th our beautiful blue parakeet "tweeters" died! His burial is tonight after the kids get home from school.

Steve bought him for me when we first started dating. We figured tweets to be at least 16 yrs. old.

This weekend I told the kids we would go pick out a new bird:) They said they want a puppy, but finally settled on a new parakeet. The kids will all be in school next year and I will work (maybe!) part-time so a dog is totally out of the question.

In other BIRD news... I am an insane woman!!! I have become addicted to bird-watching! These are my two bird feeders in the backyard, I want to buy more, but where I hang them is kind of limited because the squirrels have already broken two other feeders. They hang on them, chew on them and arrrgh!!! shatter them. So far

Steve's garage has been safe for the feeders, there are no close trees for the nasty little squirrels to leap to the roof and attack:)

This is kind of personal, but seriously, I get up each morning, grab the binoculars and watch the birds interact with one another. Steve thinks I'm weird because the feeders are only 20ft from the porch, but my eyes are crap and I like to see them up close. I get out my bird book and mark all the different birds that come to visit. It's very fascinating and the kids love it too! Even Ally is learning her birds. Our main visitors right now are goldfinch, purple finch, white-breasted nuthatch and juncos. I bought different bird books and the kids like "scholastics Audubon First Field Guide

BIRDS" They have them at Barnes along with Animals, Fish, Reptiles, Rocks, weather etc... These books have such great pictures and just a nice set to have! Well gotta go Ally wants to watch a movie now and I need to clean! FUN, FUN!!!

Steve is 37!!!!
This blog is lovingly dedicated to my wonderful husband of 14 years.

Steve and I have a LONG history. We went to grade school and high school together. We never even batted an eye at each other over all those years. We did have mutual friends, but Steve was such a rascal in grade school. He was the boy who spent most of his time in the hallway or in the principals office. He had a hard time in school and was often disruptive, your typical "class clown" He was diagnosed with dyslexia in first grade and transfered to my school in second grade. My school had a better special ed. program. He was just saying the other day that he was suprised he even graduated high school because his grades were so bad. After high school he joined the Navy and was shipped off to Saudi. The Gulf War changed him for the better. I wrote him a letter once while he was away. He still has that letter. I really don't know why I wrote him? Some friends of mine gave me the adresses of all the guys stationed overseas and Steve is the only one that I chose to write to, weird huh? After he returned we were at a friends wedding and he kept asking me to dance. He asked me why I never asked him out in high school? So I asked him out that very night, we went to Wayne's World:)

I am so proud of how much he has accomplished. He was recently promoted to shift supervisor at the power plant, most of the people he works with have college degrees! Steve is a great husband, friend and father.

Hello all! No pictures today:( I just never have my camera at the ready when the good stuff happens. Anywho, not too much happening lately.
My oldest children are driving me CRAZY!!! Everyday I hear from one or the other that I am ruining their life. For instance, this morning Hayley(now10, going on 16) comes out into the living room with this weird outfit consisting of a white cami-undershirt with one of those short sweaters that tie underneath your breast area. It looked strange and so I told her to go change WHOA!!! the yelling and whining started full force! I hate when my kids get all upset right before school. She finally changed and made it to the bus in time, but is probably having a horrible day. Too bad I didn't get a picture:)
Zach, almost 12, is having girl issues. One day a girl likes him and wants to "go out" with him and the next day he's a jerk! He told me he didn't do anything to these girls to make them mad and he just doesn't understand them. Welcome to adolescence Zach, poor little guy! Somehow his popularity or unpopularity rests solely on my shoulders:) If he doesn't have the right clothes, its my problem. If I don't let him talk on the phonefor 4 hrs, get a cell phone, take him to boy/girl parties etc,etc... You'd be surprised how many kids in his 6th grade class have cell phones and the parents let them do what ever they want. It is so scary!!! Maybe I'm a little overprotective, but kids are growing up way to fast. I'm sure the best years are yet to come!!!

Fresh Paint, new carpet!
Finally, the basement is done! The carpet came last week and it looks so great. Now we have this huge family room with nothing to put in it:) Nebraska Furniture Mart here we come! The kids like it just the way it is though. They do cartwheels and just run around down there. Ally has her own room now. She just loves it, you can't really tell by the pic, but her walls are a real light yellow. Hayley's room gets fresh paint this weekend and an updated pre-teen decor:) I'm getting sick of painting, but I feels good to get everything cleaned up before spring hits.

Ta-Da!!! Ally is 5...

It's hard to believe that five years ago today little Ally was born! She woke up this morning and asked if she starts kindergarten today:) She also dressed herself (notice the hairties around her ankles) We are having a little party for her tonight(just us, since it's a school night) Ally requested lasagna, salad and garlic bread for dinner AND angel food cake with bubble gum ice cream:)

7 Swans a swimming...

We are getting geared up for the holidays, oh yes we are!!!

Ally and I spent the day hanging all the stockings and cleaning around the house. I need to make a Wal-mart run to buy all my cookie supplies:) I'm really starting to feel the crunch!

There is yet another BIG storm heading for the midwest this weekend. We WILL have a White Christmas! We are still recovering from the last two storms. There are glacial formations on my porch, driveway and patio! I got out the shovel and ice scrape thing and tried to make a dent out of all the ice, but NO lie, there is ice 1.5 in. thick under the snow.

The pictures in this post were taken tonight:) We had the most beautiful sunset. The other one is Ally and her friend Hannah. They have been playing dress-up, aren't they fancy:)

Merry Christmas everyone.

CINDERELLA???

Here is the latest member of our family:)

This big wooly booger was found near Steve's wood pile in his garage.

It is absolutely the biggest fuzzy caterpillar any of us has ever seen!!!

When it would crawl up my arm it felt like tiny needles poking into my skin! The kids thought it was cool!

Cinderella was rather inactive so I let Ally keep it in her sand pail. Alas, we came home from Grandma's last week and the thing escaped! We have not found it yet.

Just like the fairy tale Cinderella... Ally's may come back all transformed and beautiful some day?

FALL IS ... Pretty flowers, fuzzy catepillars and wildlife wall murals???
Hello again! Life is fast and fun! We have been on the go go lately but try to have as much fun as we can along the way:) Ally has been collecting fuzzy catepillars, as you can see! They are her little friends and she makes homes for them, lets them crawl all over her, feeds them and yes, confides in them! She definately needs a new dog!!!

Don't you just love the life-sized mural? Steve totally loves it, I think it's a bit much, but he wanted a manly basement so I will live with it:) We are ordering carpet very soon and yeah! The basement will be done! On to the next project?

The beautiful flowers will soon be gone. We are suppose to have our first freeze this week! The boys (Zach, Luke and Liam ) had football yesterday and we froze our buttutties off!!! Especially Audrey who wore this skimpy tank top to the game, Tom had to make a Wal-mart run to get her a hat and sweatshirt! The north wind was brisk and all they had was instant coffee at the concession stand! BUMMER!

Everyone is getting sick!!! Ally had a bad cough with fever! I wasn't feeling all that great for a few days and now Zach has cough, sore throat and fever! I have been a prisoner of my home since Thurs. Calgon take me away!!! Zach's school said a virus has been going around and some kids have been absent 7-10 days- YIKES I'm making chicken noodle soup for dinner ALL IS GOOD!!! Later:)

Hola, from Panama! There really is not much going on here lately:( I've been trying to diet and walk everyday, walking has been great! Ally can ride her bike forever and never complains of being tired. So she rides and I walk, it's becoming our routine! The Dieting on the other hand, is tough!!!! I really eat healthy, good foods, but after tracking my calories daily on www.sparkpeople.com I consistently consume too little calories a day, and a majority of my calories are carbs (which totally suprised me) So I need to quit being too busy to eat and exercise more:0 ttfn

Hola, from the Rocky horror picture show!!!

When I blogged last time, Steve had just gotten over his hernia surgery. He recovered nicely and was pretty much back to normal. He had some complaints of heartburn and stomach pain though.

Two weeks ago Steve went out of town and got really sick! He had to go to the ER. After a few tests and scans they found he had kidney stones.

They gave him some pain meds and told him to drink lots of water to flush them out. He was in horrible pain but started feeling better when he got back to Panama. We thought the worst was over but the day after he got home (Sat. 15th) he woke up early with severe groin pain and was hot, sweaty and vomiting! He could hardly talk he was in so much pain. I took him to the ER and more tests and scans showed that one of the stones was too large to pass through ( kidney stones form in the kidney and there is a very narrow tube that connects the kidney to the bladder. This narrow tube is where stones typically get stuck and the back up of urine causes intense pressure. Once the stones hit the bladder there is no pain. ) They kept Steve overnight and the stone still didn't budge. The doctor sent him home with strong drugs and (Wed. 19th) he had to go in for this shockwave treatment that broke up the stone (Picture) there was a lot of sandy stuff that came out too. Right after his treatment he peed bright red bloody urine! It was quite a week for us!

The doctor called us after steve's shockwave treatment and said Steve needed to come in for a consultation because his blood work came back and there was some concerns. To make a long story short Steve's blood calcium level is all out of whack and he must have surgery. He has a parathyroid tumor(NOT CANCEROUS) www.parathyroid.com they say once he has the surgery he will feel 10 yrs. younger! Calcium in your blood causes all kinds of bad symptoms and Steve has blood tests every year and his calcium has been elevated for many years, but no doctor has ever been concerned about it? Thank God for Steve's kidney stones! I will keep you updated on poor pin cushion Steve.

Yes, we're still alive!!!

Sorry for not blogging lately, I've been so busy that the computer has taken a back seat for awhile. I haven't taken any pictures in a long time either so I thought I'd just update on some happenings at the Hall house.
The kids go back to school tomarrow:) The summer sure went by fast, but man oh man am I ready for fall and winter to get here already! It has been so --- hot!!!
My garden is plentiful this year, I have tomatoes all over my counter, we can't give them away fast enough. I've already made two double batches of salsa and need to make more tomarrow night.
As most of you know Steve had surgery two weeks ago. Some how he developed an umbilical hernia, he thinks he over did it at the gym, but who knows with him? Steve still thinks he can do twenty year old stuff in his almost forty year old body. Poor guy. Now he can't lift, pull or push anything over 10 lbs. So I've been doing all the yard work, taking trash to the dump , trying to get stuff done in the basement etc... He took a week off from work and is recovering nicely. I've caught him trying to lift stuff, so I really have to nag him.
I gotta go, I'll try to blog more this fall! ttfn

It's almost July and so far summer has been jam packed with excitement and a little bit of sadness.

As most of you know our cute, little dog Biscuit is dead. We had a few sleepless nights around here, but lots of good memories! Biscuit was our first baby and had almost 13yrs. of love and constant attention. I told the kids when our other dog dies we will get another, one dog is enough.

One of Zach's classmates from school died last week. He was in kindergarten and third grade with Zach. We went to his funeral yesterday, it was very sad. Lane had Downs Syndrome and was such a happy kid. He always wanted to play sports with the other boys and was just one of the gang. He got really sick around Christmastime and Zach came home one day and said they had to amputate one of Lane's arms. He had just gotten out of the hospital a couple of weeks ago, but got a kidney infection, his heart stopped. Zach keeps saying " I can't believe Lane's dead.

Vacation in the Ozarks was awesome!!! I miss waking up in the morning and letting all the kids go to the beach! As many kids that we had running around it was so relaxing and easy. Thank You Mom and Dad! It was a memory maker for sure. Steve and Heidi's huge fish, OJ getting into green marker:), Tom dropping the fillet knife into the lake(hopefully no one swims over there), Steve dropping my huge fish into the lake, JR catching a fishing pole, Joe catching fishing line the very next day, all the big one's the got away during our midnight excursions(must be the beer), Quiddler:), Heidi's mountain lion sighting!, the list goes on and on!!!


Baseball and Softball is just about over, we have tournaments starting next week. Zach's team has only won one game and Hayley's team has only lost one game so the tourney's should be interesting!

Emily and kids left with mom on Wednesday:( It was such a blast to have them here. The cousins all get along so well, we will miss you all soooo much! You too Rob!

Fourth of July is almost here. We went to this little farm in Kansas to buy our fireworks. Steve goes there every year because the fireworks are half the price of fireworks around here. The kids lit some stuff off last night with their cousin from Iowa. We are having a little party on the 3rd and some friends of ours have a huge shin-dig on the 4th! They get huge gi-normous ones from Missouri, probably a few thousand dollars worth! Crazy, but the kids love it! I could not justify spending that kind of money on stuff you just blow up!
Zach left for Boy Scout camp the day we got back from the Ozarks! He was gone for a whole week and came home with tons of mosquito and chigger bites. He had a blast. The last night they were there they had a huge storm, so he came home all wet and muddy. All his gear was all wet too! It was such a mess!

Well, gotta go for now, everyone have a safe holiday!

The countdown has begun!!!

The big kids get out of school for the summer on Tuesday! I have mixed emotions during this time of year. I love my kids to death, but having them around 24/7 is sometimes grueling. Zach and Hayley love to fight and argue, and then there's the whole "I'm bored what can we do now" thing, which totally drives me nuts because no matter what I suggest they turn it down? Oh well, vacation is almost here and I just can't wait to see everybody:) I even started putting things that I'm bringing into boxes today, I know it's crazy of me, but when I think of stuff we are going to need I figure pack it now so I don't forget later! My mind is so full:) I found a huge clothesline, that we can cut-up if needed and a whole pack of clothespins so we can do laundry and hang suits on. I could go on and on, but I must go. Today is my last day of home daycare and I am giddy with excitement, I've been doing it for so long that it's really no big deal, but I signed Ally up for preschool/daycare and I can't wait to find a fun job somewhere!!! I'll keep ya'll posted.

P.S. The picture up top is of Zach's Confirmation- we are so proud- He worked hard this year learning all his prayers and the dreaded 92 questions. Joe was his sponsor-thanks Joe- It was a fun night and the Bishop really gave the kids a great talk!

JUST CHILLIN...

Literally, just chillin' here in Nebraska! April, so far has been sooo cold and wet! We were spoiled in March with 70 degree temps, but now are in the 30's -40's for daytime highs. Snow is in the forecast for tonight even! I think all of my beautiful plants have either died or are badly damaged, they are all brown and wilty:( My fruit trees have lost all of their pretty blossoms too! This weather has the kids indoors on most days and I am getting frazzled.

Easter was nice this year, but again freezing cold! The Easter bunny hid plastic eggs with candy in them around our yard. It was probably around 15 degrees out, so the kids got on their winter coats and found all the eggs. All the candy inside was frozen solid, so we had to let it thaw out before eating:) That bunny must have hid them the night before:) Going to Mass was also quite a thrill. All us gals had our sandals and new spring dresses on. BRRR! Next week looks better, and I keep thinking that in less than two months we will all be together! HOORAY.

HAPPY "LATE" BIRTHDAY CHRISTA KUCHTA!!!

Makayla Jo is here!!!
We are having a great time today! Makayla is here and Ally finally gets to be the oldest. She is taking on the mother hen role with pride. She told me this morning " Mom I will take care of Maykayla today okay!"

So far she is doing great and not being bossy at all!?@* I think it's because Makayla seems to be in awe of Ally. During lunch, Ally would take a sip of juice, then Makayla would take a sip. Ally took a bite of sandwich, Makayla took a bite etc. etc... It was hilarious:) Makayla has been following Ally all over the house and right now they are both doing somersaults in the living room (more like rolling all over the floor) Ally has even been sneaking cookies and sweet cereal for the two of them, so sorry Gina and Joe if Makayla is bouncing off the walls tonight:) She did eat most of her lunch though, she totally devoured the egg salad sandwich I made. So I guess I should also be sorry because now she will be bouncing and farting:) TTFN