We got the POW-WA!!

Woooo Hoooo! It is a good thing we removed our carpet a few months ago cause it would have a serious rip through it! Power was restored Friday!!

Powerless

Hello! In case any of you have been wondering we are all ok! I am sorry I have not been able to post an update before now. We lost power the night of the hurricane and we still DO NOT have any. This Friday will be 2 weeks! My friend Janelle has power and so I am over at her house enjoying her company and the power!

After careful consideration and prayer we decided to stay and stick it out. We wanted to be close so we could asses any damages and act quickly afterward if needed. We were lucky and our house did not sustain any structural damage. Our fence was destroyed as each of the posts snapped off, we had tons of huge branches that had busted off in our yard and during the storm we had a leaky window in our Master Bedroom. We were able to keep up with it and so that did not cause any inside damage. The storm was pretty dang freaky to say the least. Imagine if you could fit into a vacume cleaner...that is pretty much how it sounded. You could feel the house ache and hear the flexing trees break. The winds really started pushing hard about 1am, the eye passed over about 6am and then the winds returned again about 7:30am and continued until about 1pm Saturday. Here are some pictures of our yard.....

I was so worried that one of these trees would fall on our house. Lots of debris but hey....I am totally cool with that.
What was left of our fence.... Another shot of the backyard. See all those pine tree branches? We don't have any pine trees in our backyard....only in the front. ;)
Weston starting cleanup....This is our neighbor's tree right across the cul-de-sac....It may be hard to tell but it is a huge oak tree that busted right in the middle and landed on his truck in the driveway. It took the guys a whole day to get it off.

Warren was out there with all the guys picking up....he was a great helper.
The beginning of the debris pile in our cul-de-sac.

Weston spent the week doing of service to others who were much worse off than us. Church members and neighbors. After they were mostly taken care of he got the whole week off work because there still was no power.....SO....this is what he did for 3 days with our Uncle Steve.

Friday will be two weeks without power. The first week we were VERY blessed to have a cold front move in and stay the entire week. We had originally planned to go to Austin to visit friends but there was so much clean up to be done and we couldn't have asked for better weather, so we stayed. This week the heat is back and we are praying power will be restored each day. About 75% of our city has been restored so we have been spending a lot of time with friends. So many have been very welcoming and generous. I have been bouncing around various friends homes doing laundry and trying to stay cool. The baby has been running a low grade fever for several days but today his fever is gone. Warren has been in heaven...finding sticks, playing with flashlights and building stuff with dad all week. He really doesn't seem to notice the difference, although he has been having movie withdrawls. Weston's building got power and so he is back to work. I am just trying to get enough sleep, keep the baby fed, keep us all cool and clean, keep ice and cold beverages in the cooler and maintain patience with the restoration efforts.

The great thing about the Hurricane is that is has brought families and friends together. I love that people are happy to help eachother. Wonderful friends have been taking care of us. I am so grateful for the love they have shown. It is that love that literally gets you through the storm. It is such a blessing to be a member of the church and also to know that if you need anything that the church is there for you too. I am grateful for the peace that comes through the Savior at this time. We love you all and will try as best we can to keep you posted on what is going on. Pray for Power!!!

Y-Ikes!

We have lived in Houston for 2 1/2 years and it looks like we are going to experience our first hurricane! Every hurricane season we have gotten several close calls but fortunately we have never been hit. Well.... Ike looks like it is coming our way and will be a direct hit on Houston. It is currently a category two storm and they predict by the time it hits Houston it will be at least a three, possibly a four. It is supposed to hit early morning around 3am Saturday. We will watch the storm for the next day or so to see how it develops before we decide if we will evacuate. For now, we have our 72 hour kits, stocked up on batteries and water, filled our gas tanks and today I am going to get some canned foods so we can eat ok for a few days. We will most likely lose power. We have a gas stove so we can cook some food, if we stay and stick it out.

Anyways, that is the update there. We will keep you posted on what we decide to do. We will have our cel phones with us (hopfeully they will be working). Ta Ta for now! Oh dread....if we die...we love you all!!! ;)

Grandma's Visit

Grandma (my mom) came to Texas last week to help and spend some time with us! While she was here Warren and Benjamin thoroughly enjoyed being spoiled by her. I was just starting to feel better and so we tried to take her around a few places at the end of the week. We took her to the bayou to feed the turtles....
Warren making homemade noodles for our chicken noodle soup.
The day mom got into town was her 60th birthday! It was fun to celebrate with her while she was here. 50 means you are half dead so what is 60 then? We didn't have 60 candles....we didn't want to take any chances burning down our new house.
Warren sleeping with his new Dino stuffed animal (donation made possible by Grandma of course).

The Benjamin and grandma watching the republican convention together. We were happy that she could come and grateful for all her help!

Good Things....

Warren started his first day of Joy School yesterday. He has always been a momma's boy and has a hard time being away from me but he did great yesterday. He greeted me first thing in the morning "Mom, I am all ready to go to school today!" He also informed me that pre-school is only for BIG boys, not for mommy's and daddy's.
Cuddling with brother.
Waking up to these cheeks.
Anytime you can sleep with one eye open, is always a good thing. Especially when you have a big brother who is always "cuddling" with you.

The meatloafs have officially left the building! I am so bummed that I did not get a before picture so I could really gather some oooh's and ahhh's BUT right now these ankles and feet couldn't be prettier to me. (Please disregard the need for a fresh pedicure) The last 6 weeks of my pregnancy, my feet and ankles got ridiculously swollen and became what I called during my 1st pregancy my "meatloafs". My ankles looked like I had golf balls under the skin and even my flip flops were too small. It was pretty sad. Anyways, aren't they beautimus? Notice the bones in the top of my feet and the nice angles and contouring. Aahhhhh.....

No rest for the weary....

While Dustin & Natalie were here visiting the boys got to spend some good quality time together installing our new hardwood floors. They worked there little tails off and they turned out awesome (before and after pictures to come). And yes, Weston accumulated some "needed" power tools to properly complete the project.
I always love to see Weston hard at work. ;) Check out those forearms baby......Aye!
Warren was a good helper and built right along with them. Isn't this a great house?
Hanky was our little cheerleader. He is the biggest flirt EVER. I could just eat him up.
Nat helped out a ton too. She manned the kitchen, dishwasher, stairs, Warren, Hank,.....enough said. Thanks so much for all you did for us! We love you guys and miss you already.



Warren and Hank hangin out on the Boardwalk.

The Benjamin

We are happy to announce the arrival of our new son, Benjamin Weston Hall! Benjamin was born Friday, August 15th at 8:10 am. He weighed 8 lbs and was 20.5 inches long. He has been a wonderful baby so far. Very content and easygoing. Lets hope it stays that way! He was delivered via c-section and everything went well with the surgery and birth.

We had a bit of a scare with me after the surgery but all eventually settled down and I am doing fine. I had a rare reaction to the medication that the doc used for my spinal block and subsequently my heart rate dropped to 43 along with my blood pressure. A few shots of adrenaline got things back up to speed (literally) and then my heart rate and blood pressure were through the roof. After almost 5 hours in recovery they got me stablized and everything went smoothly after that. I was monitored by a cardiologist while at the hospital and EKG tests all came back great before I was discharged , so I am good to go.

Being born is rough.
Momma finally gets to meet him.....
All cleaned up...
Warren was SO excited to finally meet his baby brother and has been so sweet with him.

Family of four. Warren and Benjamin exchanged gifts. Warren picked out the green frog as a present from him to Benjamin (all his idea) and the blue train is for Warren from Benjamin.

This is a picture of the Hall Men. Dustin (Weston's brother), Natalie & baby Henry came into town on Saturday. It has been so great to have them here and we were especially grateful to be able to have family here to share this special time with us.

Benjamin flashing his charm at a mear 30 hours old....yea, pretty much the cutest newborn EVER! While Weston pulled up the car this funny old man brought me down in the wheel chair. He was just chatting away asking me all kinds of questions. He was pushing me so fast I was a little worried about having a minor collision on the way down. He informed me that there was a hill in the floor and so he had to gain speed to keep up his pace. Weston flashed a picture right at the end of the journey. We made it accident free and are finally home.

Crazy

We made it! We moved last weekend into our new place and we have been consumed cleaning and getting unpacked last several days. The heat has been grueling. I know, I know we are crazy and every day we go to bed totally exhausted. I am trying to get as much done possible before the baby comes on the 15th (I am scheduled for a c-section). That gives me 8 days before we meet Benjamin to have this place put together, which is a little difficult with this belly and swollen feet! We have already had new carpet laid and some guys are coming today to demo the rest of the floors downstairs (We are having new wood put in). Hopefully I can post some pictures soon, as soon as I find the camera!

Captain Moroni

Last fri & sat the youth in our ward had a Book of Mormon read-a-thon. They have been planning it for over a year now and it turned out really great. It included cameo appearances from many of the Book of Mormon heros. They asked Weston to be Captain Moroni and read the Title of Liberty. Just the night before he informed me that he needed to to be dressed up so....we were up late sewing his costume. Yea, I am pretty much the best wife ever. Although he wasn't supposed to be wearing his shorts and shirt underneath it. I warned him that I was going to put this on the blog because I can never get him to dress up for Halloween anymore and I was so excited he was playing along so well and he did a great job.

Notice Warren's giggle and comentary in the beginning of the video as they reveal Captain Moroni on stage. He thought it was pretty silly that daddy was dressed up like him. I edited it so its not too long but I got some close ups toward the end of the video if you want to fast forward to the end. (PS I really am not a retarded videographer...I was trying to take still shots and video at the same time so at times his head gets cut out of the video.)

Hall Family Vacation

While pretty much all of my friends are off on fabulous vacations, I on the other hand kicked off our vacation with a fabulous back packing adventure to the baby's room. I was lookin good sporting the 8 1/2 month pregnant belly, swollen feet and ankles (well, at least by 4 o'clock every day they are) and crickety hips.

So.... the weekend before last I started out doing great with packing. I packed the entire baby's room and some of Warren's toys (although, this week he started un-packing a box or two searching for his missing treasures). I guess all the bending and lifting got to me and I had a couple of intense contractions, so I called it a day....or should I say week....
The next week, we made it to the pool a few times with our friends (Janelle & Caryn) and REALLY.....I thought about packing everyday......
Warren drying off right before we were going to go home and pack.............
....(drumroll please).......packing progress last week.......(yes we have officially become alchoholics).....
My goal this week is to have these boxes filled.....or perhaps we'll just go to the pool. It is Texas in July and I am 8.5 months pregnant. Our closing date is the 29th and we are supposed to be ready to move on the 2nd.....do ya think we are gonna make it? Stay tuned.

Mi casa es su casa...

Well, I haven't been very good at keeping the updates about our house drama's BUT..... it all started last October when we decided and announced that we were building a house and we have been/were. Well, to make a LONG story short, the builders were lame and took FOREVER to even start construction on our house. They originally told us it would be done March or April '08. Well, they didn't even break ground until April. Our lease on our house we are renting was up in June and our landlord was expecting another year lease to be signed, etc. There is a whole saga in between but we have been really prayerful about it and we decided earlier last month that we would start looking at existing homes and we did. Shortly thereafter, we found this house and we put our first offer in a few weeks ago. It is owned by an oil company and is currently empty, due to an employee relocate.We put in the initial offer a few weeks ago and after much patience with corporate we finally came to an agreement and received a signed contract last Thursday! The process has been painstakingly slow and stressful. The initial offer and counter offers had to be reviewed by at least five (picky) people, etc. (deep sigh...) We are very excited to FINALLY be able to have a place of our own. We are supposed close and move the end of this month. Just a few weeks before the baby will be born! That will be a little tricky to pull off with this belly and Weston's work/travel schedule but I'm sure it will all come together in the next 3 weeks right!? Here are some pictures.
We will have a mighty comfy guest bedroom. All friends and (most) family welcome!! ;) I was trying to get a shot of some of the trees in our yard. We have a ton of huge pine & oak in the front and 6-7 huge oak in the back. Our entire backyard is shaded at all times.
Its barely in the picture but the garage is to the right, detached with a covered breezeway from the back door.
The Front entryway.

4D Baby Benjamin

I had another ultrasound yesterday and this time I got these really cool 4D pictures of our little man! The discolorations and distortions you see are normal (amniotic fluid, etc) and they are not any kind of problem with him. It is so cool to be able to see what he (sort of) looks like. He was tucked into my side pretty good so she had a bit of a hard time getting a full face shot but the sum of all photos give you a decent idea. I love the one where you can see his little hands rested up on his cheeks. And yes, the little stinker is still breech. Humph.I am getting so anxious to finally meet him! (If the pictures are too small for you to see, just click on the photo and it should enlarge it in another window).

Oh baby!

This Saturday my friend Shelly (and her mom) threw me a baby shower! I wasn't expecting to be having one since I already have a boy. It was such a beautiful party and it was so fun for me to have all my friends together to celebrate the upcoming arrival of our new little son. They had a luncheon & this yummy shaved chocolate, raspberry mousse cake... and the gorgeous flowers (that they sent home with me). Oh, and the gifts were nice too. Warren was born in the middle of the Michigan winter and this baby obviously is NOT. So, I was in need for some summer clothes for the little man. They also presented me with $250 (group gift) in American Express gift cards to help me get a good nursing chair. They totally spoiled me! I am so grateful for their thoughtfulness and feel really blessed to have such wonderful friends here in TX! Here are some of them:

Me with Katie A, one of the YW I get to hang out with. She always has a hug for me.
The hostess': Shelly and Karen Jensen. (I serve with Shelly in YW)
Me (behind the baby outfit) & friends: Kari, Pam & Marilyn....
Sister Ivory and Janelle....
Melanie F, Karen R & baby Jennifer....
Jennifer, Michelle & Lara....

Aunt Julie, Mary and Annette. I didn't get pictures of everyone but am so grateful for all who came!