November (This post is a month long)

November. How do I describe you...you've been an interesting month to say the least. I would say..."emotional" would suit you but I hesitate to use that word because of connotations associated with it. How about "poignant"? Yes, I like that word. Lots of memorable moments that have affected ours and others' lives.

On November 14th, we received the sad news of Grandpa Gordon Hall's passing. I didn't know him as well as the rest of my Hall side did but I considered him just as much my Grandpa as anyone. I'll always treasure the night that James and I got to spend with him and Jean up on their farm summer 2010. We saw the all the new construction on the farm, saw the cows milked and the baby cows outside, slept in the upper room where James' dad and uncles slept and heard lots of fun stories. My parents got to meet him at James' and I's wedding and they just loved him. He was humorous and amiable and fun to be around. James said he remembered Grandpa best by how caring he was. He will be missed but loved and remembered always.

Gordon & Zelma Hall

November 17th 2011 - A day that forever changed the life of James Boehme Hall. He forever left the ages that began with a two and is officially, (well, his opinion of officially) OLD. James turned the big 3-0!

James was going to be out of town on his birthday so the weekend before I surprised him with a nice dinner (Red beans and rice, fresh green beans and pork chops) and a cake! He wasn't too thrilled with his cake though...

Dear James, you're not old sweetheart. You're still very young at heart and I love you so much! And turning 30 is a fun thing because now you can say you're 29 forever! :)

The reason James was out of town on his birthday because my father took all his sons to the LA car show! My brother, Jason, and his family came into town for Thanksgiving and to start off their vacation, the Brinkle boys voted for a boys only trip to LA for the car show. Even though it was on his birthday, James happily obliged going along. Who doesn't like going to the car shows???!!! It's been a Brinkle family tradition for as long as I can remember. I remember my Papa, my father and Jason going when we were younger. I've even gone to a few myself. They're a blast! Long day, but fun.

They started off Boys Only by doing Go Carts! They topped that off with Buffalo Wild Wings and football watching.

Theeeennn, to top that off, they went hot tubbin!

Don't you think inviting girls would've been fun?

The next day was the actual car show. I would love love love to show all the cars they saw but that would be a very long list. So I picked some favorites:

Blake Griffin car - he was Sooner (OU) basketball player. Boomer!

This is Tanner Foust, the guy on Team HotWheels who broke a world record jump at the Indy 500 this year. Open the link below to see the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SjX7A_FR6g&feature=related

 They certainly had a blast :) Jealous!

While the boys were off having fun at the car show, my mom, sister-in-law and three nieces were supposed to come visit Tucson. But alas, the season's sickness spell came upon the girls and they were unable to come down. No worries - I went up! Because they were sick we weren't able to do a whole lot outside of being at our house but it was great to see them and spend time with them. We colored and went to the park and played with the puppies and went for walks.

 When the boys got home with had a double birthday party for Michelle and James. Michelle turned 03 and James turned 30. Holly was very creative and came up with the idea for the birthday cakes. Then we went to town decorating them. I then taught them the wonderful Hall tradition of Heavy Heavy Hang-over with their birthday presents. Michelle liked that :) James had a mildly better reaction to his second cake too.

Michelle's Cherry cake (per request)

The awesome decorators of Michelle's cake

The birthday kids

Rocket Man's cake decorated by the honorable Holly

 

 

Heavy heavy hang-over thy poor head, what do you wish with a ::bonk:: on your head?

Unfortunately we (James and I) had work the 21st-23rd so we had to come home. So we worked and then did stuff around our house like laundry and decorate for Christmas! (Pictures of that in future post - the decor not laundry)

Thanksgiving day was a pretty day! We cooked and ate and played ping pong. It was wonderful :)

Food Babies

PIE!!! Look at that mongo Pumpkin pie!

James kept the girls entertained :)

Friday all the adults went to a morning session at the Mesa Temple. Its a special moment for a mother to have all her children in the temple at one time :) Right Mom?

Saturday we had family portraits taken at the temple.

After pictures we went to a park up in Chandler. It has a name...but we just call it the Train Park because it has a train you can ride in around the park :)

Marli and Michelle got to ride in the animal cart :)

That Merry-Go-Round was down right scary (and very very dizzying)

 

 

 

Decorating for Christmas at Mammy's

Helping Mammy

Marli helped me decorate the hutch. Good job on those snowflakes!

My red-neck family moment...see video

My parent's house. Good job boys!

River of lights

Last but not least, we had Christmas early at my Mom's house so that we could have it all together. We did something different and themed our Christmas "All Eyes Toward Home." So our gifts were fitted to that theme. Jason and Holly did "home based" gifts, giving James an etcher and a magnetic wrist band to hold nails or screws while tinkering. I got beautiful dishes with "Halls" in vinyl. Jason used his creativity to make Jordan a key holder out of legos. It was really shnazzy looking :) James' and I's gifts were "home made." I made a book for my parents that had the words of the family proclamation with pictures to go with the words. I made Jason and Holly a date bucket (thedatingdivas.com) where they can pull from a slew of ideas for their date nights. I gave them enough dates that they could do something different every Friday for a whole year! I also made Marli and Michelle rag dolls. My mom is making Holly and I wall hanging quilts and then she put together an entire Family History for Jason and I. Huge 2inch 3ring binders of where our lineage is from on our side. It was awesome! I think I really liked having a theme because it made our gifts more meaningful and memorable.

Well, congratulations - You made it to December. Thank you for putting up with my lack of blogging than slamming the blog with a post that takes me 3 hours to make. It's much appreciated :) Until next time!