Crazy Day

Yesterday we had a funny experience at church.  This lady came and handed Andy his class ring.  Apparently her daughter had taken it from him like 10 years ago when they dated.  Guess that's what happens when you go to a stake you grew up in.  :)  ha ha.  If she's hotter than me I'm totaly gonna smack her! JUST KIDDING! :)

Today we had some people coming to fix a few things on our home.  The builder had sent me a list of people and two of them called to say they were on their way.  They arrived here at the same time, as well as 3 other crews who forgot to call. :)  Now I'm glad they came, and even early, but it's hard to talk with all of them at the same time, especially when they barely speak English. 
So being the awesome mom I am, I turned on the tv for Halle.  The window guys of course said the windows were fine.  I had to tell them, "no, it's not normal to not be able to lift the window."  :)  They just didn't get it!
The guys fixing the popping boards on the breezeway hit a water line with a nail and a flood of water started pouring through the light fixture in the entry way.  Thankfully they are building 3 homes right behind us so the plumber came over right away and fixed it.  The electricians then came and tomorrow the sheet rock dudes get to do a fun job.  I had water down the walls even in the laundry room. Plus the guys then left and the floor still pops, in fact it's worse now. ha ha.  The carpet people have to come fix the carpet cause they pulled it all up and left it in a pile. 
Anyhoo, the shower door is hopefully 'leakfree' now and the mirror is secure.  Just hoping that when they come to fix the cracked tiles we don't end up doing the entire house over or finding a dead man buried under there or something.  Just our luck. :) 

New Calling......what is that again?

So we are really enjoying our new ward.  Due to sickness, we've only been there twice, maybe 3 times, but we like it........so far, Just kidding!  :)
No offense to anyone, but I can't remember the last time I really enjoyed the meetings so much.  For the last 7 years I've been pretty much in the primary, nursery, playing music for the ward (my favorite) or several of them at the same time.  They've been great learning experiences but I didn't realize until today how much I have missed going to Relief Society.  I enjoy serving but kept thinking, ok, when they give me a calling, I hope that I can still come to Relief Society. 
Today we were called into the bishops office.  He told us they were happy to have us and they've heard lots of good things about us.  I had to laugh since I have no idea where they heard that!  I guess Andy grew up in this stake, but that was like 10-12 years ago.  People change ya know. :)  ha ha  
Since we are new to the ward, my first thought was, (could you please speak in church).  Nope,  I was called as one of the Primary Achievement Day leaders.  Yes, I've worked in primary forever, but I've only heard of this and don't really know exactly what I am to do.  It will definitely be something 'new' for me and I'm looking forward to it.  Plus, it's 2 nights out of the month that Andy has to put the kids to bed. :)  Sweet. 

Little Miss Halle is 3

I can't believe that our little girl is already 3! While she is definitely a 'red head' with a Huntsman temper, she is also the sweetest little girl. This weekend some of her cousins came over to help us celebrate. We went bowling-most of the kids scored higher than us. Of course, they were using the bumper but still. Not my nor Andy's finest performance. :)
It was fun though. We then came back to our place for Pizza and cake. Can I just add, that after having carpet in rentals for the last two years, it is SOOO nice to have tile and not worry about kids spilling or making a mess. :) Sweet..
This is by far, our 2nd saddest looking birthday cake. :) ha ha But it was a last minute thing and she had picked the princess toppers out at the store quite some time ago. She loved it all the same. Yeah there are 4 candles including the castle but ya gotta have one for good luck, remember. :) She also proudly wore her ribbon that said, "Birthday Princess."
We had originally planned to have a "Princess Party" and make everyone come dressed up as royalty. We bought all 'princess' cups, paper plates, napkins, etc. Halle considered that her present-she was so excited about them. She kept showing everyone what she'd got for her birthday. Guess the boys lucked out that we scratched that idea after everyone got sick. I had to laugh because they all refused to use the princess cups or plates, (except little Peter). :) They insisted on the plain white ones. ha ha! Don't think they would've loved dressing up like a prince either. :)
This was a last minute get together since we were feeling better. BIG Thank You to Andy's sisters for coming to hang out on such short notice. It really made Halle's day. :)
She was very excited to have a pinata for her party. My family does them at Christmas time and she's never forgot it. She patiently waited until her birthday to have one. :)
Being the awesome sister-in-law that I am, I gave the kids, pizza, cake and then loads of candy to eat all night. Thankfully there is plenty of room for the to run around crazy. ha ha
Here they are all counting their 'loot' from the pinata. Thanks again everyone for making it such a fun night!
We did have our own little celebration the week before on her actual birthday. The kids pitched a tent in the bedroom and had a sleepover. It's hard though when one kid gets a nap and the other doesn't. Payton kept trying to sleep and Halle wanted to play flashlights all night. They eventually went to sleep.
Here is our other beautiful cake. ha ha. Like I said, we'd planned to have a party later so we just did a little cake for us and stuck the candles on. She was happy but I know later on when she's older she'll be saying, what the heck! :)
We went out to the movie. Yeah, we didn't want to get our friends and family sick, but we didn't care if we got everyone else sick. Just kidding! (Just colds) Luckily, there wasn't really anyone in the theater.
We didn't really see the Chipmonk movie, we saw 'Planet 51'. They kids just really like the chipmunks. They were able to see the trailor for this movie though and Halle now goes around singing, "All the single ladies, all the single ladies, oh oh oh".
Yummy milkshakes!
The kids were kind enough to share. He'd 'slurp' then Andy would. mmm, mmm, good.

"Merry Julianuary"

It's taken me a while to get back to blogging. Mostly because I wasn't exactly sure what to say about our holidays. ha ha.
My mom came to visit for the week before Christmas. We were all very excited to see her. The kids had fun giving her their ritual tour of the house, the moment she arrived. (she gets one every time she comes to visit.) The kids were getting over colds/strep/whatever they had, so we spent most of the time indoors. Mom and I 'got' to do our shopping late at night and it was fun to spend some one on one time with just her.
My kids were of course, on the naughty list, probably at the very top in bold writing. However, they didn't care because they are not that dumb. They know Grandma is here and she brought them enough presents that it didn't matter what Santa brought!! Dang her. :)
We managed to get her sick. (It's basically another tradition when she comes to visit now. ) Either that or it rains the entire time she's here. ha ha.
We did get out for dinner once and saw the Princess and the Frog. Despite the crazy voodoo stuff, it was a really cute movie and we left looking for frogs to kiss.
We had our little Christmas with her and I was glad she could see how happy the kids were to open presents and just to have her here.

Here the kids are counting their money!! They were both taking antibiotics and it was such an ordeal to do it that mom finally said she'd give them a dollar every time they took it without crying and all the drama that came with it. It was mostly Payton having a hard time. Hello..we know medicine doesn't taste good, it's not supposed to. Halle just got paid to be nice. They had about 10 dollars. Thankfully for Grandma, she came when they were almost done. :) They wanted to take their money and go buy bikes. We've since convinced them to live more within their means. I'm thinking more, a book. :)
Mom left a few days before Christmas and we headed up to Andy's parents with the rest of the gang. This is what a tree looks like with tons of people. Can't remember the exact number, something like 23-25 ??? I've never seen that many presents in my life. Course I'm an only child. ha ha.
Andy and his dad went goose hunting Christmas Eve morning. They came home with about 6. Can't remember why he didn't cook the 'Christmas Goose' but we had a very yummy dinner of Turkey and all the trimmings that come with it. Including Grandma Gold's china. We were very Fancy Nancy. We had our program and sang carols before piling all the kids in their sleeping bags. Our current fav is 'Merry Madagascar'. The kids watched it several times before falling asleep.
It was fun the next morning to see ALL the kids so excited. So fun that I forgot to take pictures. ha ha. I think I have like 2. Oops! Oh well, it was Merry all the same.
I did get one pic of Halle in her princess dress. She got a princess trunk of dresses and shoes.
Payton got an art set and he and Halle were both spoiled by all the family. Ha ha....this pic is from Thanksgiving but I felt bad I didn't have one of him to post. :) Seriously, why didn't I take pictures???? :)
Most likely cause the kids spent all most all their time just playing with cousins. Nothin's more important than family anyway, right? :)
Thankfully they soaked up all the fun they could cause we spent the rest of the holidays SICK. Andy got pneumonia, the kids and I got 'new' YUCKY colds, then the flu, then colds again, and to top it all off, Halle some how contracted head lice. The last two weeks have been just.........uh......awesome. Thankfully, Andy's family has been very helpful and now that EVERYTHING in my entire house has been vacuumed and washed about 67 times, I am slowly starting to gain my sanity back.
So if you didn't receive our Christmas card, that's because this month has been a blur and I plead insanity. I did however, find them 3 days ago underneath a pile-all ready to go. :)
So we hope you had a wonderful Christmas/New Years and wish you a very 'Merry Julianuary!'
(Madagascar baby!)
(All doped up on cold medicine! 2009) :)