Knows a Lot, About a Lot...

Presented TO:

Warren Maxwell Hall

The past year Warren has been attending "Kids Of The Kingdom" preschool at Christ the King (Luthern Church). I can't say enough how much I have loved his Preschool. They have truly been wonderful teachers and shown him (and all the kids) so much love. For instance, every staff member teacher, director, secretary, assistant, etc knew EACH child by name from the very first day. There wasn't a day or time when I dropped him off that he wasn't greeted with a warm "Hey Warren!" a smile & a hug. Brings me so much peace of mind knowing he is seen and loved at school. :)

Their were 14 kids in his class and 2 teachers. Here he is with his teacher Mrs. Lauren. He loved both of them but I think he favored Mrs Lauren just a little more and I know she loved him back!

She always shared things from a teacher's perspective which made me appreciate some of Warren's personality traits which sometimes try my patience. Like the fact that he is always on what I call "turtle time". Warren gets things done but he does it on his schedule which is usually very slowly. Once I expressed my frustration and she reminded me what a great quality it really is that he takes him time to do things right because so many kids don't like to take enough time and end up with sloppy work, etc.

Warren is a tender heart and she picked up on that too. She also shared and reassured me that as he matures it will also be a quality that will keep him grounded and close to Jesus Christ. She said "He's either going to be an architect or a preacher!" We'll see. :)

Here he is with Mrs. Bethany. She is very patient, kind and also very observant.

Here he is with his class the last day of school. Mrs Bethany & Mrs Lauren had made an award for each child to highlight their strengths. Here all the kids gathered around waiting for their name to be called. They went in alphabetical order.....it is HARD being a W!

Warren receiving his award. Mrs Bethany also shares what Warren told her he wanted to be when he grows up and what he wanted to do this summer for fun. :)

On mother's day this is a questionnaire they asked each of the kids. It was displayed on the bulletin board so we could see their answers. It was so fun reading what all the kids said about their moms but of course Warren's just made me melt. I admit....... I'm a sucker.

Singing is a big part of KOK. The kids sang such cute songs at their daily chapel, Christmas, Valentines Day, Easter, Field Day and Mother's Day. About a month before school was over his class had a field trip at Old MacDonald's Farm. There is lots to play on, petting zoo, a train, etc and the kids just loved it of course. Here he sings with his class "We LOVE Jesus!"

School's over and its time for SUMMER! Hope you have a fun one. We are SO ready!

A little spring in our step...

I am still catching up from all the trips and have fallin behind in my posts. So here is a little Spring rewind & recap.....

The Saturday before Easter we hunted eggs at Town Center here in Kingwood. They always have great Easter festivities and it has become a tradition of ours to go each year.

We also attended a charity benefit for a young Kingwood mother name Katy Hayes who contracted a common form of Strep A delivering her last baby. Subsequently, she had to have both her arms and legs amputated. Such a sad story but it was a wonderful event and it was inspiring to see so many in the community come together to rally for her. To learn more about Katy click here:

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Parenting/flesh-eating-bacteria-costs-mom-arms-legs/story?id=10646649

We had our friends Zach and Dulca over for Conference and Easter dinner. Weston has been teaching them with the missionaries for several months. They are great. :)

Here is a little peak of my first garden! I can't say enough how much I am loving it. I did plant one last fall (a little late in the season) and I was hopeful but it froze too early and therefore never amounted to much. I planted this garden in March (from seeds) and it has been doing well so far. My peppers, tomatoes and strawberries have been doing the best. More to come here, later. :)

This is random but I thought I would post it. When I was fifteen years old I got into quilting and I made two patch work quilts. This one was completely crafted, assembled and tied. It just needed binding but I didn't know how to do it and I never took the time to learn. Well, for the past 17 years this quilt has been sitting in a plastic bag in a box. At our last Stake Conference a sister (whom I didn't know before sitting by her at the meeting) introduced herself and randomly asked me afterward if I had any patch work quilts I could display at the Stake Quilt Exhibit & Picnic. Well, hot dang! I had two. I explained the predicament with this one.

Sister Goodman was so sweet. She drove to my house with her quilting book, gave me a little tutorial and wah-lah! 17 years later my 15 year old ambitions were made complete. As I sewed this old quilt, so many memories came flooding back about all that was going on in my life at the time. Long story short- it turned out to be a tender mercy for me to see this quilt be complete. Even if it was 17 years later! Sister Goodman insisted she take my picture with them. So, here you have it! The top one is called an "Around the World" quilt.

Here is the other one.....still wrinkled from being packed in a box for so long. They didn't hold a candle to all the other fancy schmancy ones done by the "professional" quilters but she still wanted them displayed. This one is called a "Log Cabin" quilt. :D

We have been to several Astro's games but they have usually been date nights with Warren or Weston. This time we went as a family. It was also Ben's first Astro's game. He was mezmerized by the lights, the music, the train aka "choo choo!" Here you see him pointing to it.

If you look just below the lights you will see the full size train that drives around the track around Minute Maid stadium. When they hit a home run....the conductor blows the whistle. The boys LOVE it!

All my boys. :D How'd I get so lucky?

Mothers Day. Warren's preschool hosted a "Mothers Day Tea" where all the moms came and our kids pampered us. It was so sweet. He made me the cutest corsage and served me chocolate covered straberries, short bread cookies, cheese, crackers and lemonade. They read us books and also sang us some great mothers day songs. As featured in the video below. :) Thank you to Warren who made my Mother's Day so special. I love you buddy.

We celebrated dad's birthday! His cake was lovingly decorated by Warren with a various assortment of candles, a lolly-pop, a HEB buddy buck 20 point sticker and some Wall-E paraphernalia. :) Of course, dad loved it!

Warren has been taking swimming lessons and has been learning so fast. He has always loved swimming but stayed true to his cautious Warren self. I am so proud of him. He's so willing to do everything she asks. His biggest hurdle is just feeling confident in the water without hanging onto her/my neck! He is very determined and I think he will be swimming in just a few more lessons!

Doing Bobs!

Last but not least. Our friend Dulca got baptized! She is the sweetest person. I just love the strong spirit at baptisms. It's always amazing to me how it envelops us and confirms the truthfulness of the Gospel. She asked Weston and I to give the talks. He spoke on Baptism and I spoke on the Holy Ghost. We felt honored to be part of their special day!

Bees in our Eves...

The day we came home from Utah we noticed a ton of dead bees on our front porch. Upon further investigation we discovered that our eves had, in fact, been infested with bees. We had a Bee Keeper come out and exterminate the hive. He came about 9pm with a red light (bees return at night and cannot see red light) and it took him about an hour. Then, it was a day and a half of carpentry work to rip off the old eves, clean out all the honey, hive and rebuild crack free eves. We had to fix all the eves on our house or else they said they would just come back and start building in the next crack. That is a grand total of $1600 - for bees. It was great entertainment for the kids and Warren thought it was cool to meet a real Bee keeper but STILL! Ugh.

From the outside you couldn't see a whole lot but this entire corner of the eve was the home of the hive.

These poor carpenters were being dive bombed the entire day by angry bees - who upon arrival from their journeys found their little home away from home was gonzo.

Bag of hive #1 - He said he thought their was approximately 30,000 bees. If you look closely, all the little white wormy things are larve ready to hatch. The hive was ready to explode!

Bag #2 of stuff. - Yuck!

Bag of dead bees.

More of the honeycombed not yet bagged.

Next time you come to my house I want to hear oohs and ah's about our new eves, ya got it? ;) A pure waste of $1600 bucks. Can you tell it was painful writing the check?

UT Bloopers & Outakes

A few weeks ago we got back from a little hiatus to Utah. We primarily came to spend time with Grandpa Hall. There is always lots of running around while we are there. Here are some fun moments we caught, that kept us smilin as we burned tire marks in the blue van up and down I-15.

Every day we spent time with Grandpa and he was in pretty good spirits despite his pain. He kept us laughing. You are such a great example to us! It was fun hanging out with you Grandpa. We love you!

The Man Cave: It wasn't long before Ben figured out where the men of the Faler household hang out. Mark, Charlie.....King Tut....the Bull, etc. etc. Charlie the cat says "Meow".

Meeting our newest nephew Finn. He is SO sweet and so handsome. I didn't have a cold this time so I actually got to snuggle this boy. :)

It snowed 3 times while we were in Utah which brought pure happiness and joy to Warren. He made gloves out of socks and played in the snow everyday. He loved every chance he got to pelt dad with snow balls. Not bad for the last week of April.

Giving my niece Angie and baby Evelyn a little pep talk....."its ok to come a little early....Emmy is here and she wants to meet you!" Angie was 8.5 months along. Isn't her little tum cute?

I even tried bribing her with shoes. Aren't these the cutest shoes EVER?

Don't mess with me....I'm Mrs. T! Esssssay!

Ben's first real haircut......"hey lady....you ain't EVEN gonna stick that buzzing thing on my head now are ya?"

Warren & Ben taking their first train ride on an ELECTRIC train (as Warren deposed). It was exhilarating as you can see.

Ok, this lady at the Zoo had the best hair I have seen in a long time. I couldn't resist....

Clip 1: One of the kids favorite things to do is go to my brother Brian's house. He has big open space, a dog, chickens, a pig and a huge garden. Ben is so cute chasing the chickens and I sound like an idiot trying to be a chicken. Definitely blooper worthy. Clip 2: The boys playing in the tub happily after a LONG day. :)

We got lucky and caught a little spring skiing while we were there. We used to be ski bums but hadn't been in over 10 years! Alta welcomes Emily Vaugh Hall. ;) Waiting patiently....did he fall? Did he break his arm? Did he do a spread eagle off a jump?

On the lift.....fasten your goggles....we don't want anyone losing their cheeks!

I think they call that the SNOW....PLOW honey. He kept up pretty good with me most of the time. ;)

Post run#1 rest stop. Weston made me laugh more this day than he has in a LONG time. We kept getting noodle legs after each run and he'd ski right up to these chairs and say, slightly panting, "wanna rest"? While he was taking "a rest" he always kept his goggles on. I mean it was sunny and like 70 degrees up there that day and I think they were a little too tight. I'm just sayin but doesn't he look cute? I'm tellin ya he scored bucco points this day!

While I really do think this picture of Weston is adorable....this pose is a little dumb & dumber-esque....would you say?

Chillin at the park with my little sister Rachael & her baby Delilah. Hey Rach....park rule number 1 would be......

While we were there the renovations at Grandpa's care home got finished and he got moved to his new fancy room. Weston, of course, had to make sure all the furniture was working correctly before we left. He has been beggin me for one of these chairs ever since.

Last night before we left we whipped out the "Red Mule" for a little cruise around the Bountiful Hills. "You can get 80 miles a tank on that hog."

Bddddddddddt, Bddddddrttt!

Toodles! Until next time!

Austin IS WeIrD. Check.

Each year my dear friends & I (from our Ann Arbor days) reunite for a little girl bonding time. The last week of March was our Girls Weekend (Austin)....30 something style. Our husbands went to Law School together at U of M and while they were buried in books with blood shot eyes, we made no haste for discovering what sisterhood is all about. :) Since graduation we have made it a yearly tradition to get together and visit one of our- neck of the woods. Phoenix. Houston. San Francisco and this year Austin! (Cue music below- Just one of the fantastic Austin Gigs playing around on the streets as you walk around)

There is a saying about Austin and while I have been there several times before visiting Cheri, I had not yet fully experienced Austin's "weirdness" in its true form. Until now...

The first thing that was weird about our GW Trip was that KATIE....was not able to come this year. Boo Hoo. Yes, thats right, our artistic amis was suffering from major back issues and therefore could not make it this year. As I write, she is recovering from back surgery. She was with us in spirit & web chats though. xoxo Katie.

The food was amazing! Katie was SO there with us every step of the way. It was almost like you could see her watching over us! ;)

The Boutiques there are great but BE careful..... you just might get flashed. Lets just say that nursing is a VERY open sport in Austin and this particular mom was lacking a brazier as well. Whoopsie! lol People there are friendly too....like this passer by who wanted to be in our picture. I had to get a picture of this Boutique because my maiden name was Luther and in my entire life I have never met anyon

e with my same last name. Austin is cool though...so of course there is a Boutique "Luther's".

There are artisans of all kinds in Austin and the the kind man that offered to take our picture overlooking Lake Austin was no exception. He had a real eye for the nat-ur-al! 1....2....3.....CHEESE!

Happy Birthday to me! Birthday Margaritas- Mormon chic style.

This "baby girl" is pretty much the weirdest... yet cutest I have ever seen. ;) I wanted to take her home.

Never knew one could play the saw.....this girl was seriously so kind and sweet.

The Food was AMAZING. Did I say that yet? Me taking a picture of Ronna, taking a picture of the Amazing Food.

Katie is that you?

In our adventures we stumbled accross this sweet candy shop. While succombing to candy store ecstasy, Ronna defeated a beastly stool while harnessing her inner core strength.

They have all these vintage-y antinque shops around. Wait a minute....is that Al Gore!?

Apparently, Austin is the home of the largest bat colony in the US. They live under this bridge. At dusk they fly out and its supposed to be really cool. We don't know cause they didn't fly the night we went. It was too windy. There are approximately 750,000. I stole this pic from the internet.

For Katie. Cupcake hocker stall. :D

Swimming in natural springs in Zilker Park. Ronna & Cheri dove right in. I took a little more convincing for me to get in the 68 degree water. Brrrr. It was dang cold but after a while it wasn't so bad. SPRING WARNING: "Topless welcome. If you don't have a suit, your underwear will do just fine!" We, of course, came prepared!

Last night with the girls. Having dinner at a yummy restaurant overlooking Lake Travis. The band & atmosphere were great. We always have such fun. Thanks to our sweet hubbies who year after year encourage and support us! It is always hard to leave fam but it is SO refreshing to go. I always come back feeling so energized and reborn as a woman, wife and mom. :D

(Tip: If you are getting this post via email click on the underlined hyperlink HallsRock at the bottom of the post. It will direct you to the blog where you can watch the videos that are missing in the email.)