Polar Express, Birthday, Graduation, Oh My!

Hello again from your local delinquent blogger! Just thought I should post my bi-yearly update on our family :)We are still going at warp speed, but things are slowing down a bit for the holidays. We had a wonderful trip to the Polar Express the day after Thanksgiving with a lot of friends and family during which we celebrated Noah's 3rd (can you believe it?) birthday.



So much for getting a good family picture on the train :)




The next weekend we had Noah's real birthday which we kept really low-key, just relaxed around the house. He LOVED his presents which included a cool car garage, a basketball hoop, and a John Deer remote-controlled gator (my walls however, did NOT enjoy some of these gifts!)



Last weekend we went to San Francisco for Steve's PhD graduation. We are all so proud of all the hard work he put into that degree! Now he is applying at Universities and Seminaries all over the country.














Celebratory dinner at Bucca di beppo:





Today Grace had her Christmas recital at school, the kids were so cute! Grace was pretty nervous about singing in front of so many people but we had a talk about some techniques for helping her to relax. I had to explain that talk to her teacher after she walked into class and announced "I am going to picture you in your underwear Mrs. McElrath!"

Summer Update

Hello all! Man, life gets busy and the blog gets put on the back burner :) Summer has flown by. We were in Colorado for Katelyn's wedding, I photographed a couple of weddings here in AZ (HOT!!!) and Steve studied non-stop for his Comps (the HUGE test he has to take to complete his PhD.) When he asked what he needs to know for the test, his adviser told him, "everything that a PhD student should know." Very helpful. So he has been studying everything he can get his hands on. He is in CA now, taking his comps for the next three days, and then when he gets back he has to prepare to defend his dissertation in Oct. My photography business has been pretty steady, especially considering the heat. It is picking up a bit now and I expect that to continue through the fall. Grace will start preschool again at the end of the month, she is so excited! I can't believe how much the kids are changing! Noah is almost into the preschool stage, chatting up a storm and SOOOO busy. I find his little matchbox cars in the weirdest places. He has so many and he takes them everywhere, so it is not unusual for me to change a load of laundry only to have a car fall out of the machine. Or to open the refrigerator, (or freezer or dishwasher) and find a car tucked away for safe keeping. Grace has started hiding anything she doesn't want Noah to have, so I am constantly pulling princesses out from under the living room rug, or the couch cushions. Suffice to say, you definitely never know what you will find when you open a cupboard here at the Hallam house. Heres a few recent pics of the kids. (By the way, since I am terrible at updating my blog, make sure and check my facebook page if you want to be kept more in the Hallam loop!)










Grace has started dance and LOVES it. Here is a video of her and her good friend Adeline at their class. She sort of likes to shake her booty...hopefully just a short stage that doesn't last until her teen years! :)

Spring Pics

I have launched a new photography blog for my business!(www.lindsayhallam.com/blog)I posted these pics there too (although it won't typically have much family stuff on it), but for those of you who get this blog via email, here are some recent pics of the kids. I wanted to practice shooting a bit with my 50mm lens so I took the kiddos out to a grassy area by our house and let them run around. They had a blast and I actually got some pictures of the two of them together, in the same frame. Dreams do come true! :)

Soccer!

Today was Grace's first soccer practice. It was so funny! All those little kiddos running around on the field doing drills...ha ha. The push-ups were the best part, we need to practice them a bit, she couldn't seem to get her knees off the ground. She laid her head down and stuck her bottom up in the air and sort of waggled it around, lol! Noah was soooo bummed he didn't get to play. We brought a ball for him on the sidelines but he pretty much spent the whole time sobbing "soccer baaaaallll...soccer baaaallll..dada PLEEEASE" poor kid. I might have to go get another small goal and set it up for him on the sideline so he feels included. There are enough younger siblings we could probably have a whole other practice just for them! I told Grace to show me her "soccer pose" and this is what she gave me:

I suppose her dada's surfing background is rubbing off ;) Grace LOVED practicing. When it was her turn to run the ball down the field she would laugh hysterically while dribbling it down. She is pretty fast! But she gets the ball all the way to the goal, and then stops. Then after some encouragement she kicks it in. At the end of the practice all the kids circled up and made up a team chant "1..2..3..Gooooo Scorpians" and then they jump up and down, only some of them aren't great at jumping yet so its so cute. They get their uniforms Thurs. We couldn't find any shorts that would fit her for the practice until she gets her uniform so she is wearing Noah's shorts. Crazy that they are close enough in sizes to do that now! First game is on Saturday, I will post a video then.