Happy Day!

June 2nd was a really exciting day! Our friend Mike got baptized! He had been seriously investigating the church for about 8 months when he committed to baptism. Mike and Amy have been married for about 4 years and Amy has been a member for most of her life. She is the sweetest. When we first moved to KW, I was Amy's visiting teacher and shortly after that she met Mike. From the first time I met him, I could just feel that he was a really great guy and he is! It has been such an awesome experience watching them grow together as a family unit and see him embrace the gospel the way he has. We are grateful they are in our lives and that we got to be part of their special day! 

(Yes, I am 8.5 months pregnant in this picture, black is a wonderful thing!)

Weston baptized him and a week later gave him the priesthood. They went to the temple this past Saturday to do baptisms for the dead and plan to get sealed as a family in a year. :D

The Keifer's with Elder Byers & Elder Judkins

Our new play thing....

For Christmas this year we decided our rowdy boys (Benjamin) NEEDED a play structure. I had been researching them for a while and right as I was going to buy "the one" I had the thought that I should check craigs list to see if their were any good finds. 

 After about a week, I found this Rainbow play structure for $500 bucks! It was a steal of a deal as the exact same one brand new is $4700. This one is only 4 years old and the previous owners bought the lifetime warranty and had just replaced half the beams for us! To make things even better...they had just moved therefore it was already DISASSEMBLED into 11 pieces sitting in their garage and all we had to do was pick it up. Score! Score! Score!

 We had a few weeks of cold rainy weather and finally as the clouds lifted a one Saturday, we beaconed the missionaries service for a few hours. I am so grateful for their help! Weston was starting to wonder how he was going to get it all put together. I was worried too because tasks like this can aggravate his shoulder (torn rotator cuff). It's moments like these being the ward mission leader pays off! ;D

 Elder Godfrey "I think I can, I think I can." Attempting the biggest knot this boy scout ever tried to tie.

Something about building stuff is sure to put a smile on any guys face. I think the boys were all quite proud of themselves. :) Warren & Ben had their tools out and were great helpers too. 

 Needless to say there have been many picnics in the clubhouse. 

Ta-Da! All put together. We tried to put it as close to this small grove of trees in our yard so it will have a  treehouse-like feel in the summer.  So far I have been welcomed into the clubhouse but I'm wondering how long it will last before they realize I'm a "girl". lol

"The most endearing of Christmas symbols"...

If you have been following our blog for the past 4 years you are aware of our annual tradition of cutting down our Christmas Tree. Weston talked about it for years while we were in school as he watched his favorite Christmas flick, Christmas Vacation. Therefore, every year since graduation we have been (as Chevy Chase says) "loading up our rear wheel sleigh to embrace the winter majesty to pick out the most endearing of Christmas Symbols."

Every year Weston has had a just a "wee" bit of trouble cutting down the tree. One year the tree farm gave us a "weak saw" last year he had "pulled" a muscle in his shoulder. Well, this year we made double sure we got a great saw and when it came down to cutting the tree the darn thing kept binding up again! Hmmmm. ;D I was feeling the pressure that my sons really needed to see the tree get cut down so I was forced to take matters into my own hands! 

It was a little tougher than I thought BUT....

I prevailed! 

I have to toot my horn just a little bit. Weston..... he laughed..... but I know he was secretly just as proud as I was. ;D 

Since I cut down the tree, of course I made the boys haul in my kill. 

Trying to get both boys to smile at the same time didn't work all that well. They were both completely distracted by the surroundings....

Warren trying to assist me in my request. 

One out of about 50 pictures where Warren wasn't pulling a goofy face. 

Ben explored EVERYthing. It's times like these when I seriously consider moving out to the country. It really is tempting!

All loaded up now its time to play! 

Tire Rolling Directions: Get a tire and go to the top of the hill. Yell "tire rolling!" and chase your tire out into the woods until it hits a tree but watch out for the rivine! Good old fashioned fun. The boys could do this all day if we'd stay that long.

Our failed Christmas card picture. For some reason Sam's couldn't get this picture to print clearly. Go figure.  

It was very convenient the missionaries were coming over for dinner that night. I think Weston must have planned it! 

The next day the boys spent most of the day working on our exterior illumination. 

A first for Warren this year was his first viewing of Christmas Vacation. It was closely monitored and all "adult content" was skipped but he, as all the Hall men in the family, found much happiness in it. Having just got done helping dad with the lights that day he found it especially funny, belly laughing through the whole thing. This is a clip of the part when Clark is trying to rig up the lights and takes his frustrations out on santa and the reindeer. I have to admit, its pretty funny. I mean who doesn't occasionally snap and have at least one uncle eddie in their family? ;D 

(If you are receiving this via email you will not be able to see the videos here. You will need to click on the blue Halls Rock link below which will take you to our blog and you can view them there.) 

Hall-oween Festive

This year Halloween celebrations were a plenty. We decided not to trick or treat on Sunday so we had fun the Friday & Saturday before. 

We started Friday morning with Warren's costume Parade at school. He was a dragon. 

Here he is with his good friend George. He was a shark. I told them to each give me their costume face. I thought their character interpretations were such a hoot!

I have no idea who these kids are but I thought this scene was hilarious. Ariel fresh out of the water has finally discovered her whole new world. "hhuuuuuhhhhuuuuu hhhuuuuuuuuuuhuuu". 

Warren got out of school at 11:15 so we headed out to "Zoo Boo" at the Houston Zoo. They decorate it really cool and the kids can dress up. Before we left I dressed Ben up in his cowboy costume. He was supposed to be a chinese man to coordinate with Warrens dragon but he wouldn't have that costume what-so-ever. So, I dressed him up as a cowboy cause he loves Woody. He thought it was cool for about 1 minute and then threw his hat off and started ripping his chaps off next. Oh well, at least I got 1 cute picture of him in his costume. lol

 The boys enjoyed the pumpkins carved everywhere, the giant candy corn, playing in the fountain & feeding the fish. 

Downtown Houston is filled with Live Oak trees. They are so gorgeous. They often grow spanish moss which looks beautiful hanging from them. I thought all the pumpkins hanging down looked cool. 

Next stop was the children's museum. It was decked out with spooky decor. They had a scavenger hunt for the kids. At each treasure spot there was trick or treating.This was Warren's first time going and he loved it. 

Decorating Halloween cookies. 

 Ben LOVES playing in the ambulance. Warren approved too.

I think the grocery store can be officially deamed my boys "hot spot". Warren loved it too. 

Ben ran straight to the best part in every grocery store...

"Spoo-ky!" After the children's museum we joined our ward for a trunk or treat of which I took no pictures. I know, can you believe it? ha ha

The past several months have been crazy busy. We usually always get pumpkins and for the past two years we have have created my pumpkin snake (you see above). Weston is the ward mission leader now and the stake is currently doing a big "rescue" initiative and so he has been gone nearly every night the past several weeks doing his visits. Needless to say we waited too long to get our pumpkins. Saturday night before Halloween this is all I could find in Kingwood that even came close to resembling a pumpkin. I managed to convince Warren that the huge green gourd would be an awesome dragon head! 

Sunday night we passed out candy and socialized with our neighbors for a little while. It's a yearly tradition that everyone in our circle comes and sits out together and passes out candy. It's always fun to hang out with everyone. 

We excused ourselves early when the missionaries aka "God's angels" arrived at our house. They arrived in stages by bike, by car & then by truck. Seeing their glowing white shirts in the dark,  our neighbors were like...."who are they...the ghost busters?!" It was funny. 

The boys LOVE to see the missionaries as much as we do. We are so grateful for Weston's calling because we get to see them so often now with all their meetings, etc. They are a wonderful blessing in our lives! 

 My missionary in training. :D 

I hope you all had a great halloween too! 

Nacho Averge Elder...

We love having the missionaries over for dinner. We have been fortunate enough to get to to know the current AP companionship quite well, as Weston taught with them often in the last several months. One night a few months back, we were talking about Mexico because our friend Dulca is from there. She had just gotten baptized and had invited us & the missionaries over for dinner. We were talking about all her cool Mexican artifacts in her apartment and somewhere in that convo I dropped one of my favorite Nacho Libre lines and then......a talent was unveiled & a star born. 

If you are not aware, I am a pretty big fan of the movie Nacho Libre and therefore Elder Lybbert stole our hearts with his very own rendition of "Encarnacion." Subsequently, I made him sing it to me every time he came to our house thereafter. As you can see I had to pull his leg real hard to make him do it. :)

Elders Rock. :D 

(For some reason the picture on all my recent videos has been really fuzzy. I wish you could see his expressions better. They were equally as hilarious as his Nacho impersonation.)