Best of Summer (Part 2)

The beginning of July our family doubled in size! My bro & sister in law arrived in TX and will be here staying with us until mid- October. Dustin is studying hard for the LSAT and well..... Natalie & I have been busy playing hard with all our little men. :) They are hoping to get into a TX law school and we sure hope they do too! We have loved having them here to play with!

Henry & Benjamin - just keep swimming.....

All lotioned up! 

BBQ & play at the park. Dustin & Natalie not so fond of the TX heat yet. lol. 

It wasn't THAT hot guys! ;) 

My tasty little turkey! 

My two (one big, one little) wolverines! 

I ripped out the mauve art deco back splash that I have longed to bid adieu! Weston & Dustin were ever so kind to hang, mud, tape & sand the new sheet rock. Thank you, thank you & Yee Haw!  (Before & After pics to come) 

Movie night popcorn and Uncle Wes demonstrating his baby whispering skills. :) Little Finn approved! 

The Hall boys feeding the turtles down on the Bayou. 

Fun at the park.

Warren & Ben slide racing. 

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WICKED! 

On the 15th of July- Weston and I went to see the Broadway Musical Wicked with our dear friends, Jeff & Janelle Jones. Jeff works for Haliburton and they are being relocated tomorrow to Louisiana. I am so sad they are leaving. Janelle has been been my close friend for some time now. We wanted to get some good play time in before they left. We ate a yummy dinner at Birropiretti's downtown near the theater district and were off to the theater! We had a fabulous night. It was our first Broadway show and it was fantastic! 

Janelle is due with her 4th, a baby girl, on Sept 20th and I threw her a baby shower/farewell girls night party. It was such a fun night and she got lots of super cute stuff. Isn't that the cutest tutu ever?

I made her these vintage baby blocks with her babe's name on them. :) 

 I still can't believe she is moving! You will be greatly missed Janelle! Love you! 

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?

Spoiled.

The holidays flew past us this year! We have been busy soaking in the holiday magic with some of our favorite fam. First we were lucky enough to have Dustin (Weston's bro), Natalie & Henry come out for 10 days! We had so much fun! (I have so many great pictures but can't post them all since I am way behind on my updates- here are the highlights!)

Fun at the Houston Zoo!!

The Hall men are ready to go shopping. Sure to make Santa's nice list this year.

Weston and his annual kill.

Dustin & Nat were lucky enough to partake in a little old fashioned family fun with us up at the Mill Hollow tree farm.

The Hay ride is always great....beware of the snakes!!!

Tire rolling.....funner than you would think. The kids LOVE it....even the big ones. :)

Weston & Dustin enjoyed some good ol' brotherly bonding time with a few projects around the house. Mold.....

Putting in the marble floor. HEY....we gotta make them earn their keep, right?

Chillin with the homies.

Bring on the turkey!

A few days after Dustin & Natalie left....my little sister Rach came out for a couple weeks. It was so great to have her, too! I'm tellin ya....we really got spoiled this year.

1st time in 3 years she is at church and what do I find her doing in the bathroom?

Visiting Rudy the train with the Fronks in Kensington, TX. Warren, Ashira & I am pretty sure Kevin were all in heaven!!

Although, Benjamin wasn't too fond of Santa....

Inside each train car were some seriously awesome train displays....

Eye candy. Oh yea.

Taking in all the details.

All buckled up with Auntie Rachael!

It even snowed! For the second year in a row. Craziness!

Warren after his Preschool Christmas Performance at Christ The King, Luthern Church.

Rach just about hyperventilated when she stumbled upon her dream car as we exited the trolley while Christmas shopping.

FHE- Building gingerbread houses with the fam. Of course, mine won first place. ;)

Weston & Warren went with a mod-design.

A belly full of manocotti gets the creative juices flowing. The construction of Forte de Fronk.

Benjazilla invaded the Forte the next morning. Mmmmm mmmm good. Bye bye cannons. CHOMP.

Christmas Eve. The kids were all nestled all snug in their beds.....

Santa came!!!! It was a quiet day spent with our little family. Payette's had us over for an early Christmas dinner and then it was back home for more playing & our yearly Christmas traditions. It was a magical day. :)

Warren holding his new Woody doll as Ben guards his new chair and bridles the horse. There was definitely magic in the air.... Ben also took his first steps on Christmas!!!