Let There Be Peace On Earth

Merry Christmas to all! Our Christmas Eve was spent at Grandma and Grandpas for the annual rare who roast beast, prime rib, dinner. The meat was fantastic and tender, the punch sparkling and the company was even better. It was so nice to get to spend it with my family. After becoming a mother myself I find that I want to spend more time with my family. Not only do they aleve me of Brody and love and hold him, but I love them even more now that I have Brody. I treasure each opportunity I have to get to be with them. I was also grateful that I did not have to work Christmas Eve. I did the holiday schedule this year and purposefully scheduled myself for 11pm to 5am over Christmas Eve because I was the second highest person with senority. It worked. Santa found the Hall and Bean home this year. Santa certainly spoils us! Brody got a high chair, the darling little puppy dog hat and mitten set below, a MASSIVE stocking full of baby food and rice/oatmeal cereal (no we haven't started solids yet, maybe in a month or so), diapers, a fish toy, a ball toy, onesies/sleepers, and more. Blake received a flat screen TV for the front room, work shirts, gift cards, smokin' wood and chips for his blasted smoker, meat gift certificates, DVDs, and a freakin sweet ATV bag. I got brand new work out clothes (for my Yoga), new snow pants (see post below) Victorias Secret makeup, gift cards, a gorgeous framed picture of Christ with children, food storage, stationary, etc... Growing up my parents would tease us that all we would receive each year was bubble wrap to play with and a candy bar because that's all they could afford. For years my father especially made this joke and thought he was so cute and funny. He would sometimes say that because it was a good year at Bean and Smedley we could get a King Size candy bar. So, every year my parents wrap up a candy bar with bubble wrap and give it to us. I hope that tradition never dies. I am constantly amazed at how much my parents have done for me, and am so grateful for the sacrifices that they made so that I could have positive life experiences. Grandma Great and Grandpa Great Hall came to our house during the afternoon and visited, hence the picture below. We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas.

Slaying Dragons, Holiday Cheer? and a Milestone

With the cooler weather has come some unwanted guests. In the last two weeks we have had not one, but two mouses in MY house. The first one I saw out of the corner of my eye run across the living room floor and into the kitchen about a week ago. I slowly crept into the kitchen and saw the mouse near the laundry room. I grabbed Brody and ran into the bedroom. I stuffed towels and blankets under the door so that the mouse couldn't get in and called Blake in a panic. He was, of course, in the back hoe setting some silly fuel tank or something and said that he wouldn't be home for an hour or so. He came home, finally, and placed sticky traps in the laundry room. About 15 minutes later we caught ourselves a mouse. I thought our problems were over, until today. I was folding Blake's jeans hot out of the dryer walking back and forth out of the laundry room to shake the jeans and fold them, when I turned around to go back to the laundry room, there was a big fat brown mouse right in the middle of the laundry room where I had been walking. Heebee jeebees. So I again run and grab Brody in a panic, barricade myself in the bedroom and call Blake. After calling him 6 times without him answering, he finally picked up. He said he would "be right home." 45 minutes later I call him, and oh and he's been over at Casey's, and Westergards. Hello? Doesn't he know I'm about to stroke out because my blood pressure is so high you can't measure it? He eventually came home and this mouse he wacked with the broom (I was not present for the whacking). Hopefully this will have taken care of the mouse problem. I just can't stand thinking that there is a mouse in my house. (I'm shuttering right now).

Next...I have had a hard time getting in the Christmas spirit. Mainly because I have gotten 0 (zer0) help from Blake. Correction, he did get the totes down from the attic. I not only strung all the lights on the Christmas tree myself, but I decorated it, and I even cut the dang tree down when we went Christmas tree hunting. It is not going to win any awards, or appear at the next Festival of Trees, but considering I did it ALL BY MYSELF I think I did a pretty fantastic job.
Third...My little baby was 3 months old this past week. I hear all the time the cliche "I can't believe how big he is," but now I know what they're talking about. He is so much more fun then he was even 6 weeks ago. He is cooing, laughing, and almost rolling over (with help and motivation with toys). He loves his bouncy chair, rattle, and reading stories. He will sit with me for 30+ minutes in front of the bookshelf and read stories with me. He loves "The Little Chick" book, and always bats at the cow and shouts at the pages. It is so fun to see him maturing and not just laying there eating, pooping and peeing.

We always were, and you never knew it!

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