An Update, Finally.

The combination of me no longer desiring to lug around two kids-worth of stuff plus a 10lb SLR camera in my diaper bag and said 10lb camera's final sad demise due to a worn out "sensor" (that camera has taken somewhere around 50,000 pictures) means that we took a small break from picture taking around the Hall House.

Until...we joined the wonderful world of point and shoot camera users! It's so easy. It's so tiny. It goes with us everywhere. It also takes a bajillion pictures. Now we have lots of going combined with lots of pictures, and once again, an overwhelming amount of photos.

We can't catch a break around here.

Needless to say, I have lots of catching up to do. We've been in Houston visiting Jake, Mindy and family but I'll have to get to that later. I'm going to start with the last month or so and bring all three of my readers up to date slowly. Wouldn't want to get folks too used to anything else.

Edy is turning three this week. She now spends most of her time in some form of costume.

Ballerina,



Princess (Thanks to Raegan Greer for the dress!),



and Southern Belle/square dancer/floofy-dress wearer.


They both love spending time with their grandmas,


their buddies, especially Pax (I don't know why Edy looks so grumpy in this picture. What's not too like? Tent. Check. Snack. Check. Paxton. Check.)


and sharing tasty treats from the ice cream truck.


Hattie prefers pointing, waving, and pointing some more.


She continues to praise the Lord. Loudly.


And loves overly-long, wet, open-mouth kisses.


They are a delight to my heart.

And have I mentioned that Edy is turning three this week?


Unbelievable.

Don't Come to Our House Today

It reeks of garlic, horseradish root, and ginger.

We spent yesterday evening chopping and grating the ingredients for our first homemade tonic, an absolutely horrendously disgusting tasting and smelling cure for the common everything. I took it a few weeks back for a cold, and it zapped it in just a few days. The same cold lingered in my mom for almost two weeks. (She didn't believe in the tonic's healing powers and wouldn't take it.)

So here she is...

One part hot onion, one part garlic, one part horseradish root, one part grated ginger, one part cayenne (we used serrano) peppers.

You soak all those tasty ingredients in apple cider vinegar for a couple weeks before she's fully ready for use. Then strain, gargle and enjoy.


Yes, it tastes like death. But if the plague hits your house, I know who you'll be calling.

For My Mom

We've been so busy lately, blogging has not been top priority. However, to appease my mother, I'm updating the first picture so her in mid-air catching a frisbee in her bathing suit is not the first thing you see. However, if you haven't seen it yet, you should scroll down and look at it. She looks pretty fantastic.


This picture is from our vacation obviously (which I will eventually blog about). It was cool, overcast, almost fall-ish feeling day. It was lovely.

I believe Edy is praising the Lord in this picture. Or at least that's what I like to think.


And here's sweet Hattie, (also praising) and showing off her new, very sharp teeth.

Happy birthday!

My mom turned 55 yesterday.


Doesn't she look great?!?

Weekend at the Morris'

Since we are about to leave on vacation to Florida and the Bahamas (!) in a few days, you can be sure that posts from me are going to be few and far between over the next month. So, in between the packing frenzy, I am squeezing in time to share pictures from our lovely weekend with Josh's family.


We stayed with Josh's step-brother Jesse, his wife Liberty, and their family in their beautiful new home in Jasper.

It was a great time. We enjoyed Jesse's delicious fajitas, took walks, took naps, and caught up. And, to my delight, the dirt road leading to their house was right across the street from the once-famous amusement park "Dog Patch." Ah, memories.


Edy had the time of her life. They had a four-wheeler (her favorite!), their own personal pond for throwing rocks into (also her favorite!) and...


a three-week-old fawn to pet and feed! Heaven on Earth!


Josh and Pat (and Hattie) played and played and played and sang and sang and sang. Endlessly.


Hattie worked on her crawling, which she is now quite good at it, and all without using her knees. It's very impressive.


Outside on the porch. Just minutes before Libery took an ill-fated jog down the road that resulted in a trip to the ER and seven stitches.


And after. Notice the bandage.


Hattie spent a lot of time topless. It was very hot.


And just for cuteness.

Have a great July. See you in several weeks.

Camping in June

The Hall family camping trip has become a once-annual event that reminds us every year why we only do it once a year. Now, yes, camping is fun. But not camping is significantly easier, cheaper, less hot and sweaty, and more well rested.

However, despite the fact that it was boiling hot, that Hattie cried almost constantly the first day and night, that to survive we had to rig our camper up with a window unit air-conditioner outside with a dryer hose running inside, and that we were serioulsy discussing getting rid of our pop-up within about two hours of arriving, we had a pretty good time.

Our home:

Hattie turned into a regular "Princess and the Pea." She required all of the blankets stacked up just so so in order to take her naps in the camper. We ended up nearly freezing the first night because Josh had the air cranked and Hattie was using all the blankets as her mattress. No one dared to wake her.


We all did some fishing and caught several. I caught both the largest fish I had ever caught (sadly, it wasn't really that large) and the smallest fish I had ever caught (about the size of my pinky.)


Edy probably had more success on her Dora the Explorer Wal-Mart fishing pole than I had using Josh's fancy fly pole. You can't really blame your equipment in that case...


First catch!


Someone suggested that we bring the Pack 'n' play along for Hattie. I wish I could remember who it was so I could thank them. Since she's at that super grabby, wiggly, half-crawling stage, it would have been really difficult to function without a good place to set her down. Edy enjoyed it too.


The chair broke. That's what they get for trying to snuggle in a camping chair.


And just because they're cute:



I wouldn't include this one, but I wanted to show that I was present on this trip.


And there you have. Don't expect any more camping pictures until next year...It's going to take us that long to work up the nerve.

7 Years

And what fun it's been.

Happy Anniversary, my darling.