Neverland Halloween...

 Halloween was great this year. We haven't had a family theme for a few years but the boys really wanted to be characters from Peter Pan so after a full week of sewing, nursing and completely neglecting my house..... I present to you.....

 Warren as Peter Pan...

Ben as Cap'n Hook...

Ben was so good! He wore his "hook hair" the entire night and the trunk or treat and on Halloween! It took some serious pirate spin on my part but thankfully he bought it! ;) 

Oliver as Smee...

I had already bought him a Pea in the Pod costume but they insisted. 

I admit. I loved the idea!

I was Wendy...

 Friday, at the ward trunk or treat, we even got Weston to be the crocodile! 

It's the first time he has dressed up for halloween in 8 years! We were so excited! lol 

I just love my boys. Don't they look awesome!?

Before Stake Conference on Saturday, we went to Zoo Boo at the Houston Zoo with our friends the Kiefers. It is always so much fun. They have all kinds of fun activities, trick or treating and a free pumpkin patch. This year they had an amazing dance company come and host a dance stage. They had AMAZING costumes and taught the kids the thriller dance. It's a little hard to see but most of the professional dancers where on the front row.The tall things in the back are giraffes on stilts.

Our friends the Keifers wore their costumes to Zoo Boo. Needless to say they were a very popular act at the Zoo. I think we had about 400 people comment on their costume. "Oh, look (followed by a gasp, giggle or jump) their a SMORE! It was pretty funny!

As you can see, the boys had a fun day. 

Warren's 1st Grade Class at the Costume Parade

Sitting by his "friend who is a girl" Kloey. ;)

They have become quite the little buddies and often have play dates.

 He told me he was excited to see her in her costume because he thought she would look beautiful. :) 

Oh boy. 

Hope you all had a very Happy Halloween! 

Oliver's Blessing

On September 11th we had the opportunity to bless Oliver! I finished his blessing outfit just in time and  thought it turned out precious. I have made all my boys blessing outfits from the same basic pattern but each one is a little different. I make them each out of white linen. For O's I added a collar and pockets. I also had it monogrammed on the front. Weston gave a really thoughtful blessing and we were happy to be able to share that special day with close friends and family. Weston's dad was here from Utah and his sister Misty and family drove down from college station as well. 

Priesthood in the circle: 

Weston Hall, Lynn Hall, Larry Kalke, Kevin Fronk, Jereck Boss, 

Scott Challburg, Rico Maranto, Elder Hunt & Elder Axtel. 

 Oliver was a perfect gentleman during the blessing. 

He is such a sweet boy and we are so grateful to have him in our family. :)

Afterward, the cousins ran around crazy, eating like hungry monkeys and

 gave our play structure a serious run for its money. :) 

Money well spent for sure. 

Bandana Pants...

One of the presents Grandma Argyle (my mom) sent Warren for Christmas this year was his very own Janome sewing machine. Not sure where she got the idea (I think its hopeful thinking for a baby girl to join our fam) but ever since we got it, Warren has been very excited to sew SOMETHING. ANYTHING.  I decided we'd start with bandana pants. Every spring I make some for the boys and thought it would be something easy to sew with Warren.  

It was fun but he just wanted to sew SOoooo bad. It was a little painstaking for us both when he realized you have to iron, lay it out, measure, mark, pin, cut, etc. 

He stuck with it and finally got his hands on the machinery. 

Proudly modeling his creation. 

Now that is a cute tush! Aren't they great? Everywhere we go, people go nuts over them....and the pants aren't too shabby either. ;)

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!

Reap what you sew....

It seems like I have been sewing a lot lately and I thought I would share a few of the things I created last month.

This is the first nursing cover I have made. I didn't have a pattern I just went freestyle. The momma is having a girl and I LOVE baby blue for little girls. I think it turned out swell. ;)

I don't know if you can tell but I lined the bottom half of the cover with terry cloth. I thought it was a grand idea since you are usually burping the babe just after you nurse and I ended up using my cover as a towel half the time anyway.

I love poppies and impressionistic art. When I found this fabric I just couldn't leave it there! I love the colors! So bright and happy. I loved how it turned out.

I used minky polka dot fabric on the back.

I made another super cute blanky for my friend Katie's baby boy that I regret I did not take a picture of. It was a precious vintage cowboy print on one side, with an embossed star minky fabric on the back. So, Katie if you read this....take a picture and email it to me!! ;)

Ben's room before: I bought this chocolate corduroy over a year ago only to come home and find that I was just sightly short of being able to sew my curtains. Bummer. It was the end of the season and so I had to wait until this year for the fabric store to get the same shade of corduroy in. SO....a year later I finally got to scratch this off my list! Wahoo! Looks much better I say!

After

Not a sewing project but I have been wanting to do something like this for each of my boys for quite sometime but never found the perfect shelves that didn't cost an arm and a leg. I found these at Ikea, they were very affordable (about $15 each) and I love how it turned out. Warren LOVES to read and displaying his books this way makes it easier to rotate them and is much more inviting than a basket/bookshelf of books I think. :)

Give me some suga.....

(Song Tag: Honey Bee -Tom Petty)

This week was a busy one getting ready for Halloween. After getting rained out of the Ward Halloween Trunk or Treat on Wed night we were all looking forward to a little suga......

Hall, Benjamin (noun): born to smile, sweet, busy, magnetic, spreads sunshine were ere he goes. (synonym): honey bee

Oh yea. That is what I'm talkin about....

Off to collect some suga of our own. We went to the Halloween Carnival at Warren's pre-school and Ben was just tickled to be there. He was hypnotized by all the costumes and decorations surrounding him. He was taking it all in......

Such a happy little bee. :) Ever wonder how to make him mad?

Oh. Poor little honey bee doesn't like his hoodie. 

Come on little honey bee.....give us some suga!

Warren was all about suga this Halloween! As you can see he was the dashing Robin Hood! Robbing the rich to feed the poor. With a little suga....that is. ;)

I coudn't find a Robin Hood costume anywhere so I made his costume this year. Thus, all the posing and angles. He was very pleased with the product and I was too. :) BTW- The phrase "1 hour fast & easy sew" on a pattern = Lies! ;)

I totally did not make him pose like this. He was walking and I just got a lucky shot but I thought it modeled the costume nicely. :)

My friend Janelle threw the greatest Halloween party for the kids on Friday. Warren loved the donut bobbing best. It was so much fun!

A spooktacular spread!

Warren touching "a monkey heart". Ewe.

For the second year in a row the Fronks were so kind to come over and help us gut & carve a few pumpkins to create.....

Pumbra the pumpkinstrictor! Pretty sweet. Eh? Watch out little honey bee....

Hope you all had a great Halloween!