Grace's first Christmas

For Grace's first Christmas, Grandpa Jim gave her an incredible present. Her own website! Due to my lack of techno knowledge, we have decided to temporarily redirect some of the stuff from that site to the blog. My favorite item was the Christmas video that Dad made for Grace.
(We are working on embedding it, but for now just click here.)

Perspective

Lately I have found it all to easy to lose my perspective. Worries about money, jobs, stress with school and just life in general tend to cloud my outlook. I was looking through some old pictures and it really hit me how very lucky I am. It's amazing how you don't think you would ever forget, and to a certain extent I don't. But sometimes I live my life as if I am just trying to get by, instead of realizing that so many would do anything to have what I have. I am married to my best friend, who I love more every day, and I have two of the greatest kids ever. God has blessed us in so many ways, one of the most visible being Noah. Consider what a difference a year has made.

At this point Noah was not able to eat, breathe without the ventilator, his bowels were not working, and his heart had just been fixed.

He has suffered no complications from any of his health issues, he does not even have to be on blood pressure meds (as most with his condition do.)

In times when many are worried about legitimate things (money for example) I hope that we can keep in mind the many things that we have and focus on these instead of what we are lacking.

Big sister Grace

Grace takes her responsibilities as a big sister very seriously! I was cleaning in the other room, and peeked in to check on the kids and this is what they were doing. I love that they are such buddies now!

Kids at the park

The kids LOVE the park close to our house! Grace enjoys playing on the swings, and slides, while Noah mostly enjoys trying to eat the bark (although he is starting to appreciate the thrill of a good slide!)

Fall Festival

Our church had a fall festival today, and the kids and I went while Steve was at work. They had a blast! Between the jumpers, the arts and crafts, the facepainting and the prizes it was a kids dream come true! I can't believe how big Noah is getting looking at these pictures! We had one traumatic moment when the Doggie Jumper deflated while Grace was jumping in it..she keeps asking who pushed the doggie...but she seems to have come out of it unscathed. :) Overall, fun was had by all.

Cookie Monster

In honor of Cookie Monster's birthday (yesterday, the 2nd) Grace has been talking like him and, in this case, eating like him. A typical meal at the Hallam household...

Halloween

So this past week has been absolutely crazy! I worked two overnight shifts (8pm-5am) followed by a 8-12pm shift on Wed. Then, Thursday and Friday Steve had his seminars for the PhD program, and I had class as well. Whew! I am so glad that week is over! Next week looks pretty busy, but hopefully will include more sleep than last! Steve was in his seminar on Friday night, so I took the kiddos trick-or-treating myself (I know- I am pretty proud of myself.) The two busy bees and me headed down to a shopping center called Strawberry village where all the storekeepers open their doors and hand out candy. It was a blast! The best part was it was mostly covered by awnings (it was pouring rain) and I didn't have to worry about the candy being safe or not (not to mention the neighborhood!) Grace got the hang of it very quickly, and soon was running from store to store saying "Trick-or-treat...tanks....trick or treat....tanks..." as she hoarded her treasured candy in her bee "purse." (The only way I could get her to carry a bag.) Also, she is the first bee I know of to insist on wearing pink rainboots with giraffes on them because "mama...du wear rainboots when its raining...not my crocs..." (accompanied by an exasperated sigh and roll of the eyes.) Noah was happy to play with the candy wrappers and smile at people. On an unrelated note he is now standing up and saying "bye" as well as "mama". He says "dada" but still doesn't know what it means...but I tell ya, if he is mad or wants something, he DEFINITLY knows what "mama" means. Also, we had some family pics taken by the amazing Rachel, so make sure and check out rachelblackwellphotography.com/hallam to see them. Let me know if you want me to order any, she is giving us a steal on prices!

In other news...(I know...its been a while since I updated) I have the best husband ever. I have really been wanting this awesome camera lens for some time now, and had truly resigned myself to waiting a year or so to get it. He sold his bike and bought me the lens because he said "I knew you would get much more enjoyment out of the lens than I do out of my bike." It's like the story of the Christmas shoes, except I think he loves me more than I love him because I don't know if I would sell the lens to buy him a surf board! Unfortunately, because my bike was chained to his, after he sold it, two nights later my bike was stolen. :( Not that I rode it that much, but I definitly could have sold it to get him a new bike, or riden it in the future. Mainly it's just creepy that someone was right in front of our apartment (the bike was hanging up) which is not that easy to get to. I think thats all for now, I have to get back to writing papers...hopefully life will slow down a bit soon!