Our Aweful Beautiful Life

One of our favorite things about summer, is that we take a lot of time to go camping with our friends. We have a traditional Memorial Day Camping trip to the best place in the whole wide world....Indiana Beach on beautiful Lake Shafer, Monticello, Indiana...proving once again, there is more than corn in Indiana.....................................okay....so maybe it's not the most desirable place on the face of the earth, but we have fun with it. We have great friends, a wonderful camper, and leave with many memories each year. Do you know how I know we leave with wonderful memories each year? Because of this: No, that's not our camper. In fact, that's the floor of our babysitters basement. What on EARTH could the babysitters basement and camping memories have to do with one another? Look closely. Nearly a month after our Memorial Day camping trip, Pam reports to me that Colton and his friend Katie spent the entire afternoon playing "camping". Now do you see it -...

Hubs & I are Tim Hammer's Wedding - 6/18/2011 Mom, Pete & I! Boiler Up! My all time favorite neighbor growing up (okay, my only neighbor growing up!) PATRICE! **If you know Pat, you know that this is actually a VERY well behaved photo!** :)

We celebrated Em's birthday recently -- times TWO! Mom & Dad joined us on Em's actual first birthday, June 1st, and we had a patio supper and went to town to the new ice cream shop. Enjoy a few pictures of a fun evening! Both kids got a birthday gift on Em's birthday...a Gator to play in! They love it!! Pap's & Em She was wound up! Supper on the patio! Ice Cream at Lickity Split...the new ice cream shop in Brookston! SUGAR HIGH! Em's second party, that one gave me some gray hairs. Mom came down to our house on Saturday to help me prepare. We cleaned the house top to bottom. Jason and Jacob busted their TAILS out in the heat all day to make our home picture perfect. Then it happened. Ole Mother Nature reared her UGLY head. By 6:45pm, Jason was in the shower ready to relax for the day, and the kids and I had just come inside. The clouds rolled in. The winds started...soon the sirens were going off, and there was so much wi...

Emmalyn - Happy Birthday. I remember so clearly the day you joined us. It was a breeze. Literally. Your Dad & I went to the hospital so that Dr. Wickert could induce me. We played games on my phone. Channel surfed. Took a nap. After lunch (well, lunch for your Dad), they broke my water, gave me the epidural and about an hour and a half later, here you were. A dream come true. I'd wanted so badly for you to be a girl. Nothing against boys, but we had one of those, and Colton is everything we could ask for in a little boy. But I wanted a girl. Someone who I could spend time with, just like I love to spend time with my own Mom. Someone who enjoyed shopping, playing hair dresser, dolls/barbies, cooking in the kitchen alongside me, and all the other girly things. I hope one day we can spend an evening getting pedicures and being silly like old girlfriends. Now here you are - one year old. You're babbling, saying a few words. (Always Dadda, and never Mamma) You're starting ...

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...