Our Aweful Beautiful Life

I used to hate storms. I can remember (go ahead, family, make fun of me for my amazing memory!), but I can remember a time when there were several of us Hall Grandkids at Grandma & Grandpa's house. A spring/summer storm rolled in, and instead of letting us run off and hide in the basement, my Grandpa made us all gather together out on the front porch to watch the storm. He loved to sit there, and watch the storm roll in, and then roll on. He said you have to sit and find the beauty in the storms. Somehow, that stuck with me, and to this day, I enjoy watching a storm roll in, and eventually roll on. I also remember, that particular evening, someone (and I honestly can't remember if it was a cousin or Grandma or Grandpa who encouraged it), suggested we go puddle jumping. Soon, there was a slew of Hall grandkids with our barefeet and shorts out splashing around in all the standing water. I'm sure Grandma was smiling in joy of us all having fun together, while Grandpa was...

I'm a country girl at heart. I still enjoy the time spent with Dad (and my brother now too) in the tractor or combine, depending on the season. It elates me to know that Colton loves that time spent with Grandpa and Uncle Trent as much as I do. Last night, we took an evening to go ride, and enjoy time with them while they planted. God Bless Dad & Trent for making it a late work night, just so Colton (and I) could ride with them. He LOVED it. At one point, he even said, "I love planting"... Nothing can beat an evening spent riding and visiting with Dad in the tractor in the midst of the go, go, go of life. I know that some day I'll miss those precious rides, but for now, while my butt still fits in the buddy seat, and I've got a kid to use as an excuse to go ride, I'm going to go with it! :) Rarely does a self-portrait work out this nicely...PERFECT smile! Typically, it's like this! Riding with Uncle Trent! Colton switched to ridin...

Well, Em is finally becoming more and more brave. She's been taking a few prompted steps here and there, but over the weekend...she finally got brave! I'd catch her going from the ottoman to the chair unassisted, or from the rocker to the couch. She still gets lazy from time to time, but overall, she's getting more brave than she is lazy. Does it not feel like she was just born yesterday? Our little girl will be one in just a couple of weeks...and I'm kind of struggling with it. I feel like I've neglected her because I didn't photograph her every waking move like I did Colton -- although, I blame that on Colton. I'm so busy playing with and enjoying both kids, that I forget to take the time to just photograph one of them. Until last night....we did a mini-Em photo shoot. And it was fun! Enjoy!   Em taking some great first steps! She drinks from a Sippy Cup! She's a little bit redneck...she gets that from Dad! ;) She's a little...

Do you ever have one of those moments where you look around the room and feel as if your life has been fast forwarded about 5+ years? That happened this morning. I was standing at the vanity doing my hair/putting on makeup, while Emmalyn kept herself content playing in the living room, and Colton was taking a shower. By himself. He is only THREE. I swear, that kid is so far beyond his years sometimes. It's a great thing really, because I actually got ready in peace this morning and was out the door ON TIME, which is a rare feat in our daily routine....but honestly, to sit here and realize that my three year old (my baby!) is giving himself a shower and getting dressed/ready to go on his own, is just sometimes surreal. It's great to know he can do those things on his own, and trust me, it's a huge help when we're running behind, but at the same time, it's growing him up much faster than anticipated. It often makes me feel like he's 5 or 6, rather than just thr...

We had a weekend full of family, fun and rejoicing! I took Friday/Monday off to enjoy some time with my kids....and of course, it rains! Friday Em went to Pam's for the day (she was up at 4:45am, or I would have tried taking her with us), but Colton and I went to Story Hour at the library for the first time. He did so well. Thankfully, a few kids he knows from Pam's were there, so he felt right at home. They read a couple of stories, then colored Easter eggs. From there, we went to Wolcott where Colton got to spend some time with Paps, Uncle Trent and Jeff, while Mom, Sarah and I met Grandma Hancock for lunch at the Homestead. It was wonderful. I'd not been there before and we had a nice visit. Saturday we cleaned all day, then celebrated Easter with the Stockment side at Grandma Pat's. Here are a few pictures of that. Emmalyn's First Easter Egg hunt...in a mini skirt! :) She loved the glo necklaces. Finding Eggs! Sunday, we got up and went to churc...

Colton's favorite movie is Snowbuddies....a version of Air Bud...with talking dogs. One of the pups is called Mudbud because he LOVES to roll in the mud. Colton took a roll in the mud this morning....so to speak. Bad parent for taking a picture of this, probably...but I couldn't resist! It's been raining for DAYS around here, and Colton couldn't wait to get out and play this morning. He jumped right onto his bike and off he went...and at one point, Jason pointed out to me that he'd figured out how to ride through the water puddle you see behind Colton in the above picture. A small wading puddle. Seems to me when he went to try this bigger puddle, he forgot that we'd dug part of the  drive out, and that it's a little bit deeprer in this area... Hence....our very own mudbud.... :)

Talk about Dad of the Year. It was a simple outing, with big time excitement. Two Christmas's ago,  Grandma Jacki and Grandpa Brad got Colton an AWESOME camo tent with a tube extension he could crawl in and out of. We'd set it up occasionally, for them to play with, but never had we used the tent for it's actual use. Last night, Jason started asking if I thought Colton would be up for tent camping this summer out in the woods behind our house. My suggestion (mostly for the bed all to myself since they got three hour naps yesterday, and this Momma did NOT!!)..."Why don't you try it in the living room"? So, at dinner, Jason asked Colton and the excitement began. He was running circles around the house, picked up toys faster than I've ever seen him pick up toys and kept exclaming..."I'm so excited, this is so exciting, I don't even need my blankie!!" ... So what if Dad's feet hung out of the tent a good 2 feet?  :) One happy ca...