The Hall Memo

Thursday, March 13, 2014

Our Family Is Growing By Two Feet!

Yes, it's true! Hall Baby #3 is estimated to arrive mid-September. The due date is either September 21st or 22nd - I've heard one from the ultrasound tech and one from my doctor. Either way, we will schedule another c-section sometime in the week before the due date.

The boys are excited as they can be. Logan is clueless about the whole thing. Braden understand there is a baby in Mommy's belly. He will say he wants a baby brother but then says it's OK if it's a baby sister. My guess is he would love a sister since girls come with pink and purple, and princesses. When given a choice, Braden will pick anything pink or purple over any other color. He also enjoys all things princess :)

We are obviously fine with whatever gender this baby is. It would be nice to have a girl, but I'm fairly convinced that God is only going to give us boys. If He is going to give us another boy, maybe he will bless us with one that is a bit more mellow :)

I have seen the doctor more times that I can count already, and have already had 3 ultrasounds, due to some minor bleeding early on, but that all seems to be resolved now thankfully. So, I'll resume my schedule of appointments every 4 weeks for now. Our big ultrasound will likely be the end of April, so we will be looking forward to that. Even if it says girl, we likely won't believe it :)

I have been sick, sick, sick. Blah. Luckily, my nausea goes away by lunchtime, but I'm sick every. single. morning. Gross. I was like this with Logan too. Every morning for 17 weeks. Hopefully it goes away soon.

And, I'm already in maternity clothes. At 12 weeks. Evidently, by the third pregnancy, everything happens a lot faster. At this rate, I'll be massive come September. Something for everyone to look forward too. All I can pray for is a mild summer. If it's 100+ degrees with 100% humidity in August, I might die.

Trying to get the above picture taken with the boys was quite the challenge. Braden is pretty cooperative with this stuff, but Logan always has his own agenda. We took about 50 pictures just to get one that worked. Here are some outtakes, which I think are pretty funny.

B and L Updates

I realize it has been awhile since I posted updates about the boys, so here it goes!

Braden

We are on the countdown to his third birthday. THIRD! I can't believe it. Only 3 months away. He is getting so big! If I could use only adjectives to describe him, here is what I would say: smart, sweet, busy, funny, determined, fearless.

Some of his recent accomplishments/interests include:

Sleeping in a big boy bed! We transitioned him to a twin bed about a month ago and he loves it!
FULLY potty trained! We started the weekend after Thanksgiving and it did not take him too long to get the concept without many accidents. For the past 3 weeks or so, he has been waking up dry in the morning too!
He is so much more independent these days. He plays by himself, or with Logan, about 50% of the time, but he still asks us to do things with him.
He wants to do everything on his own, including dressing himself, going potty, feeding Rocco, etc. This often ends up with underwear that is on backwards, shoes on the wrong feet, and dog food all over the floor, but that's OK.
He engages in imaginative play these days. It's pretty awesome to watch him with toy dinosaurs just making up scenarios.
He is really good about stalling bed time. We always go in his room, read a Bible story, recite "Little Prayers", and then he prays for whatever he wants to, then it's time for sleep. There is always some reason why he can't go to sleep. Some of my favorites are:

My belly hurts because I have to poop. Naturally, that gets us back in his room, but he rarely actually has to poop.
My belly hurts because it's "itchy itchy" and needs lotion.
I need a drink.
I need shoes on
My head is growing.

His prayers are also entertaining and you never really know what you are going to end up with. He always starts with the same things: "Thank you God for... my mommy, daddy, Bubby, Rocco, Oscar, Henry." From there it gets interesting depending on how tired he is... he has prayed for Mommy's teeth, giraffe's, and my personal favorite was "Thank You God for my poopie. Oh wait, not poopie. Thank you God for Poppi."
He LOVES to dance. Any time he hears any type of music he just starts dancing along. Also, we can make him do a dance for just about anything he wants.
He is really into putting together puzzles and building things with blocks.
He is attending preschool at daycare 3 mornings a week and loves it! He is always so excited to go to school! He can recite the Pledge of Allegiance all by himself now.
He enjoys singing and can sing many songs from memory.
He likes to run. Sometimes he will just say "I'm gonna run now" and run back in forth across the living room, or in circles until he falls down.

Here are some recent pics of Braden:

Logan

Logan will be 20 months old at the end of this month. He is developing quite a personality and wants to do everything that his big brother does - good and bad!

Some of Logan's accomplishments/interests include:

Feeding himself with a fork and spoon.
Running and starting to attempt jumping.
More independent play but for short amounts of time.
He still loves to be held by Mommy and Daddy
He is VERY stubborn and can throw quite the temper tantrum when things don't go his way
He has shown interest in using the potty since he sees Braden do it. We sit him on the potty when he asks, but don't force anything at this point.
He is singing songs too. His favorites are: Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Wheels on the Bus, Row Row Your Boat, Pat-a-Cake, and Old MacDonald. Old MacDonald ALWAYS has a cow. Never any other animal... don't suggest there are other animals. You have been warned.
If he doesn't want you to sing anymore, he holds out his hand and says "Stop".
We have started putting him in time out...
He loves animals, choo choo's, and coloring. Though he still attempts to eat the Crayons so we have to take them away, which results in a huge tantrum :)

Here are some of Logan's recent photos! He's turing into such a little man all of a sudden...

Thursday, February 13, 2014

Arizona Trip 2014

We have been home about a month now, so I figured it was about time I got around to writing about our Arizona trip in January!

Of course, we have been dealing with the coldest and snowiest winter in a long time, so we were very excited to head to the warm Arizona weather. However, the weather just was not cooperating. We were supposed to leave on a Tuesday, but we got a lot of snow, and the temperatures were something like -20 and very windy. Out flight was cancelled and we could not get rescheduled until Friday. It ended up working out better though since we were able to stay for a full week when we rescheduled.

A four hour flight with a 2.5 year old and an almost 18 month old was interesting. Braden had his own seat and Logan was a lap child. Braden didn't sleep at all, and Logan slept for about 30 minutes. Oh well, we made it.

Ready to take off!

The boys were so excited to see Nana and Poppi waiting for them when they got off the plane. My Mom works for Southwest and my Dad works at the airport, so they were actually able to meet us at the gate.

The weather was so nice that we spent as much time outside as possible. In shorts and t-shirts!

After not being able to play outside for MONTHS, he just ran around for awhile.

What do you mean this isn't a real lion???

Checking out the tallest fountain in the world. Mommy grew up here!

In Arizona, you can take your kids into bars. Good idea/bad idea - I'm not too sure on that one yet. But it is an awesome idea when you're on vacation! There is this hole in the wall, cash only, outdoor bar in Scottsdale called Greasewood Flat. It's pretty cool and they have animals for the kids to see and they can just run around outside.

Checking out the donkey at Greasewood Flat

Cheers Poppi!

We went to the McCormick Ranch Railroad Park in Scottsdale. The boys love trains, and you can actually ride a train there. They thought it was awesome. They also loved the carousel so much that Logan threw a screaming tantrum when it was over.

Riding the carousel with Nana

Braden and Daddy on the carousel

Choo Choo!

Riding the choo choo train!

In years past, we have always gone to the Phoenix Zoo, and it's a great zoo. This year, we went to the Arizona Wildlife Zoo, and it was totally worth the drive. You are able to get much closer to the animals than at the other zoo, and there are a lot of hands on experiences.