Butterflies

A couple of days ago (I know I know, I am behind!) Jamie and I braved the heat and took the kids to see the butterfly exhibit at the Desert Botanical Gardens. In Colorado this is an INDOOR exhibit, why in the world is it OUTSIDE here??? It was closing in on 105 degrees and we went midday (smart). I don't know how the poor butterflies survive, but they seemed to somehow. They had just recieved a new shipment of butterflies that morning, so there were a TON! Grace and Dallas got cards with pictures of all the butterflies on them, and quickly started trying to find all the butterflies on the card. They did really well! Gracies favorite was the Zebra butterfly, which I think was mine too! I can't believe how purple poor Noahs face can get when he is really hot! We cut the trip short and only ended up staying about 30-45 min, although the kids would have stayed much longer. Next year we will be going in March :)
The pics are only so-so because we were in the direct sun, but you get the idea. I didn't have the heart to post any of the pics of Noah, he looked so miserable in all of them, even though he really did enjoy his time there, mostly tried to eat all of the plants and flowers


Gracie the butterfly




















A butterfly landed on Dallas' hand and on his head!


Searching for her favorite butterfly using her guide






There were quite a few on the ground, so we spent a lot of time down there




















Checking out the butterflies


Best Buds




















Grace was so excited!




















Dallas and Grace showing off their butterfly card

Memorial Day

This past week flew! I can't believe its almost June! We spent the first half of the weekend cleaning out the garage and doing other odds and ends. Then the whole gang including Katelyn and Chris, Chandra and Abi headed up to the McDonald Ranch. Noah is full-on walking now, including standing up from the middle of the ground without support. We are so proud of him! Here are a few pics, you can go to www.lindsayhallam.com/mcdonald to see all of them. Take a minute to view www.lindsayhallam.com (without the mcdonald) as I have updated my website in preparation for starting my professional shooting. If anyone has any leads for some shoots, please let me know! I will have brochures and business cards this week.

The Grass is always greener!

Especially in our yard! Thanks to the hard work of Chris, Steve, and Rod we now have a new artificial grass lawn. It is awesome! I think it looks really real, and there is no maintenance (perfect for Steve and I who are NOT yard people) plus Noah doesn't get allergic rashes after playing in it. The only downside is it does get hot in the sun, but an umbrella took care of that problem. This morning it was nice and overcast (finally! a break from the heat)so the kids and I went out to play. Here are some of the pics, plus a couple of our finally finished Noah-remodeled house.

My goofy kids





Our hibiscus is blooming



One of our baby oranges




















Our grass :)















Grace loves the new yard!





















For those of you who haven't seen Noah walk (its so cute- he still uses his arms a lot for balance and kinda has the cowboy-after-a-long-day-in-the-saddle-walk)


















Pictures of the house:

Mothers day

We spent mothers day in Skull Valley with both my mom and Marsha. I am so glad we got to escape the 104 degree heat for a few days. It was great to get to hang out with Steve for a couple days straight, and the timing worked out perfectly as we found out a few days before that we would have to RIP OUT ALL OF OUR CARPET. Yes, that's right my friends, Noah has added a couple more specialists to the elite team of doctors that have graced his presence in his 17 months on this earth. He now has an allergist and a dermatologist. His face has had a bad rash (some days/hours worse than others) that we can't seem to kick. Turns out the poor kiddo has eczema. At this point, not much can phase us, so when the docs were telling us all this would entail for the next (probably) 18 years they were a bit surprised that Noah and I were not more shocked. Hey, after being told your kiddo needs immediate heart surgery, hearing that he is going to have to use special shampoo is not too bad. However, we did have to do some fast changes on the house, including replacing the carpeting (lucking only the bedrooms had it) with laminate flooring, adding a hospital grade air cleaner and humidifier to Noah's room, and putting in artificial turf in our backyard. Poor Steve, still not used to how fast I move when the kids health is on the line turned to me as we moved furniture so they could rip out the carpet and said "I can't believe we have only known we should do this for 48 hours and its already almost done." :) Other fun things we get to do: wash all of his new clothes 5 times before he can wear them, use hypoallergenic shampoo, lotion, hair gel (first thing I looked for after we got the news), laundry soap, etc, mop and mop some more. Luckily I like things clean anyways, although this may be enabling my OCD a bit! Anyways, long story short, it worked out for us to be gone over the weekend, and we really enjoyed the time away. (And I love my new floors)
P.S. Noah seems to be doing better now that the carpet is out. Hopefully the air cleaner will help him as well!






Our new floors! (I will have to post a better picture taken in the daylight, but you get the idea)

For all the mothers out there...

Water play with Grandpa Jim

Grandpa Jim came to visit and bought Grace and Noah a really cool water play blow up thingy (for lack of a better name.) The kids absolutely love it- I can see them playing in it for hours this summer!

Joseph Pilates eat your heart out

Chandra and I have been going to the gym a few times a week, taking some classes (mostly its us and the old ladies doing aerobics), but today for multiple reasons we weren't able to make it to our usual Friday class, so we decided to do a pilates video at my house. Noah was napping (of course) and Chan brought Abi over- we figured they could play together. Grace soon got bored with the dvd she was watching on her portable player and came out to see what we were up to. She got so excited when she saw that we were exercising. She quickly laid her blankie down like a mat and joined us...hilarity ensued...










After about ten minutes of a grueling workout, Grace turned to me and said..."my knees are tired, I need to go to bed now" and trotted off to her room.