Vacations are so wonderful

Ok, so I am sure some of you have noticed that I have not blogged in quite some time. I am not sure why...I just have had little motivation. So, you have had the pleasure to hear all about Kyle's latest and greatest, including his masterpiece self portrait!

Anyway, last weekend...wait, 2 weekends ago, we went out to Malibu to visit my brother and sister-in-law who had just had a baby in december and they were blessing the little cutie, Luke. So, my entire family (excluding Kristin and kids, we missed you guys btw) went out to be there for the blessing and be able to see each other and spend a little time together. We hadn't all been together since Maddie was born, back at Thanksgiving 2008. So, it had been a while. It was so nice and so fun to see everyone! And it was so great to be there when Austin blessed his baby. It was a very wonderful moment to be there all together for that. He mentioned that Luke is their miracle and I know that he wont just be a miracle to them, but to lots of people he meets in his life. It is so crazy how much our family has grown! It is also so fun for my kids to have cousins to play with. And it's so fun to see how much they love their grandma and grandpa! California was also a very very very very very very (you get the point?) nice change from the snowy Philadelphia weather. (If you didn't hear, Philly got more snow this year than ever before recorded, in the HISTORY of the CITY......EVER........awesome. Of course it's the year we move here) Anyway, we were able to wear shorts, go to the beach, have a picnic in the warm sun, and not be freezing! That was pretty amazing. Let's just say I didn't want to come back home. We also got to see my old college roomie, Val, and her family. I met her cute baby for the first time, and I couldn't get enough! She is super squishy and adorable!

All in all, it was wonderful. I really wish we could see our families more often. Friends are fun and all, but they're not family. Well, that's about it! Thank you so much mom and dad for making that fun weekend possible! There was something else we did while there, but only pictures will do it justice, and I haven't gotten them uploaded yet. But here are a few that we have:

The house we stayed at had horses!

And a trampoline!

Went to the mall and rode a carousel

Then the beach!

All the relatives of the happy family!

Hallee with her best friend, Brooklyn

In Front of the Camera

I needed a photo of myself for the J. Reuben Clark Law Society application. Most often I am behind the camera so a photo that represents my sexiness to the fullest could not be found. That's when I decided to bless the world at large and do a photo shoot with myself. There were some cropping difficulties as seen here, but I finally got a winner. You're welcome.

Snow Day

So during the last big snow storm I may have criticized Philadelphia for being ill prepared to handle snow. I now stand corrected. In anticipation for this huge storm there was a lot of "prep." And by "prep" I mean the city still shut down, but they let everybody know they were going to in advance. In fact if the storm would have changed course it would have been a little awkward for everybody that closed up shop. But lucky for us the 100% chance of snow forecast was correct and we were able to go out and play. This was the first time that we have really played in the snow with Hallee. Today we decided that inadequate snow gear was no longer a valid excuse to put it off. With Megan's gloves on the wrong hands, Hallee finally got her chance. We all had a good time, for about 10 minutes and then decided we liked having feeling in our limbs. So we went back in to cap the experience off with some delicious hot chocolate (and by we I mean everyone but Megan because she doesn't like chocolate when it's hot).

Oh my girls

Megan: Hey, Maddie, say Haaalleeee

Maddie: AAAAAAAA ss

wait, what? (Kyle chuckles)

Megan: No, Maddie, say Haaaaalleeeeee

Maddie: AAAAAAAAA ss

Kyle: Hallee, you better start being nicer to Maddie or that's gonna be your new name!

oh my girls!

DC Day Trip

National Museum of American History

Tuesday we decided to take a day trip down to DC. Why not right? I still had the whole week off from school so nothing else was going on. Last time we were down in DC we went to the National Museum of American History but it was right before closing time so we only got to see a small portion of it. So this time we decided to go and see the rest.

First Ladies' Gowns

Greenough's Statue of George Washington

Greenough was commissioned to make this statue in 1832 to celebrate the centennial of Washington's birth. He modeled it after the classical Greek statue of Zeus. I think I like this statue so much just because of the controversy it created--it's kind of like the Indian statue on BYU's campus, many found it offensive that Washington was half naked. Soon jokes emerged that he was searching for his clothing so this statue that was to have its home at the Capitol's Rotunda was later confined to the Smithsonian Castle and now is in the Museum of American History. I don't see why it was such a big deal, dude's ripped and if I was that ripped I would sit on a throne without a shirt on too.

EPA

We parked outside of the Environmental Protection Agency and it was a cool looking building so it deserved a picture.

U.S. Capitol

Next we thought we would go to the Capitol. Megan and I have both read Dan Brown's latest which starts out in the Capitol so we both wanted to look around at the symbols that were referred to in the book. When we pulled up to the building we soon found that we couldn't park anywhere near it. So we parked several blocks away and decided to brave the cold. We wrapped the girls up in blankets and started off at a quick walk that soon turned into a light jog once we realized just how cold it was--we were also reminded frequently by Hallee's little voice emerging from under the coat, beanie, scarf, and blanket, saying, "I'm freezing!" We finally made it to the Capitol and I asked one of the security officers where the visitors can enter. "It's closed for the day. Closes at 4:30." What a lazy bunch of representatives getting off of work at 4:30 in the p.m. No wonder they don't have time to read the bills that they are passing.

At this point I can't feel my fingers and Hallee is still "Freezing!" Maddie can't tell us if she is freezing so we just assume that she is in the same boat as the rest of us. We rushed off to find the nearest building that would let us in to warm up. Luckily for us there was a building just across the street. Unluckily for us it was only open to US senators and none of us fit that description--yet (is he possibly putting in his bid for the 2012 elections?) We finally found our way to Union Station, which we parked right behind, so it wasn't that far from the actual car.

Union Station

I'm glad the cold brought us to Union Station because it is tight. It has a bunch of shops and food places and it's architecture is really cool. We ended up eating there before we braved the cold for another block and got in the car and returned home. By the way I don't recommend the kabab.

I also blogged about Maddie's one year pictures on my photography blog so go check it out by clicking here. And here is another preview of what you will see there.

Thoughts, and memory lane

Brace yourself.....this is a very long post.

So, we had a great time at Christmas and we are so so so glad that my parents were able to come out here and celebrate the holiday season with us, and Brad and Celeste and kids! IT is so nice to be with family during the holidays! BUT I will post pictures and go into more detail at some later time. But for right now, I just have some thoughts I want to write down.

Today at church there was a brand newly baptized member that shared her testimony. She is in high school and was introduced to the church by a girl in our ward, London. Both girls live in the inner-city of Philly and London's mom has passed away. From the things they said they both have had pretty hard lives so far. So, this new member shares her testimony of prayer and her gratitude for the church and for how much her life has changed since being baptized. Then London, also in high school, shares her testimony about how when she asked this girl to come to church, and then watched her grow and be baptized, inspired her to recommit to the church and the gospel standards. She talked about how the other girls that are in the ward help her to be strong in the church, and how grateful she is for being a member of the church and for that close knit group of friends. (Long story...sorry) --So, my thoughts during these testimonies were how incredible London to have the strength and courage to ask the friend to come to church....and how brave and strong of the friend to share her testimony! I regret not opening my mouth more when I was in high school, and telling people what we really believe. So many people have no idea, or have the wrong idea about us and what we believe. I wish I had just planted seeds. Shared a thought or two. There is one particular friend that I constantly beat myself up about not taking more initiative and inviting her to church and what-not. And maybe I planted seeds by example. Everyone knew I didn't drink/do drugs, fornicate, or dress immodestly. But that was it. I know I could have done and been better. And I guess I haven't really thought about it in so long, because I had been living in Utah for the past 8 years, and it was really easy to not think about sharing the gospel because everyone around me was LDS and had the same standards as I did. Coming out to Philly has reignited a desire to share my love and testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Hopefully in my future I will be able to speak up when I can tell that someone is searching for something more. (Goal #1 for 2010)

I am so so so grateful for so many things;

Jesus Christ and the Atonement.

My husband.

My beautiful children.

My family.

The adventure that is Law school.

Friends.

Relaxation.

Quiet moments.

Love.

Change.

Nature.

Beauty.

etc....

I want to make sure I express this as often as I can. At least once a day. Find something and be grateful for it. I think it will keep my spirits up continually. (Goal #2)

Teaching children is my new calling in life, in church, at home, pretty much all the time. It is my full time job. Maybe I need to step it up a little bit and be a better teacher. If I want my kids to learn something, they aren't going to learn it on their own. Well, maybe they will, but it would be easier for them to learn it with my help. SO...I am going to start planning, in advance, the things I want to teach and the things I want my kids to learn. And I will do it by quarters. Every three months, I want them to have completed whatever it is that I decide to teach at that time. Let's see if it works! (Goal #3)

I want to be a better cook. I can follow directions on packages and recipes, but who can't? I want my husband to see me in the kitchen the way he sees his mom. Not sure I can ever get there, but I will try. :) (Goal #4)

That's it. All my goals I think. I can't set any financial goals since it's just debt, debt, and more debt. I am really grateful that we have the new year to remember and recollect the past year, the ups and downs, and the things we want to change about ourselves. I mean, what's the point on this earth if we aren't trying to better ourselves? Anyway. Writing all of this didn't really express my feelings...but it's a start I guess. WELCOME 2010. Nice to see you.

And since I am not a fan of blog posts without pictures, let's go down memory lane together!

This was Kyle on his 2-year mission in Mexico.

I was just barely pregnant with Hallee, at the Bellagio

And Hallee was born

When Hallee won the Little Miss Hawaiian Tropic

Day at the beach with Austin and Sarah

Hallee's 1-year pics

Hallee at 15 or 16 months

Baby Madeline

Sweet sisters
And another angel is born.

Happy graduation daddy!

Hallee turns 2

Little ballerina girl

Story time

Maddie turns the big 1!
And Kyle didn't want me to post this because he is planning to do a big blog about it......

but here is a pic of Maddie's 1-years!

Isn't she so precious!?!?

And that's it! Our family growing up in a nutshell. Next month Kyle and I will be married for 4 years. Time sure flies when you're having fun. :) I love my family so much!

Snow Wave

I just got a Google Wave account and was watching a video on it and saw that I could blog from a wave, so I thought that I would try it out. Yesterday Philadelphia got snow and they do not handle it very well (which is really suprising because before moving here I thought it snowed a lot during the winter, guess not). We still went out so we got to see how things shut down. Almost all of the roads that we were on had not been plowed. And none of the plows we saw as we were driving around were actually using their plow on the road. So lucky for us the Tiguan handled nicely, because there were a lot of other cars skidding all around and others that were stuck in snow banks.

We first went out to do some last minute shopping. This is what happens when Hallee finds a mirror in the stores:

After shopping we decided to go to Qdoba because they had a promotion, kids eat free. Because of the conditions it took forever to get anywhere (we were usually going between 20-30 mph the whole time), so when we got there we were ready to eat. Qdoba was in a shopping center and the parking lot was pretty bare. We discovered the reason was not just because people weren't driving because of the snow . . . the shops were closed too! Qdoba was closed so we drove past Five Guys, also closed. We saw a Chili's across the parking lot that we drove to . . . closed. We ended up finding an Olive Garden that was open, but by the time we left they had closed early too.

On the way home we passed a car that signaled us down so we stopped to help out. After a lot of pushing, mud flung all over me, and a soaked shoe and leg from stepping in an icy puddle the car was still stuck. They ended up calling for a tow to help them out. Anyways we made it home safely and even though Philadelphia was a mess it was a fun little adventure to be out in the thick of it.

Before we went to bed we captured this video of Maddie. Brushing her teeth tickles her!

Well I was unsuccessful in posting the blog from the wave . . . there are still some bugs and I couldn't get the Bloggy robot to work (Does that mean anything to anybody? It wouldn't have to me before about an hour ago).