a.rose

Hallie is one tough little girl. She will be 16 months old next week, and she tries so hard to be a big girl. (We were actually disappointed at her last doctors appointment, a few weeks ago, to find out that she still doesn't weigh 20 pounds. My back is grateful, I'm not gonna lie, but why won't she grow???) Anyway, she helps out when we clean the bathroom, she can put her toys away, and she helps us measure the flour when we bake bread. She is a champion walker and can almost run. She's my hero when it comes to walking. What a challenge to learn how to balance yourself on those unsteady little feet. She hardly ever falls down, and when she does she never cries, she just gets up and keeps on going. I'm not kidding, nor am I just saying that because I'm her proud mom. She has only cried two or three times after falling down, and only because she truly hurt herself. In fact, one time she fell down and hurt herself, bloody skinned knee and all - but she...

Here I am sitting, waiting on hold with the phone company over an issue of 5 dollars and 95 cents. Really? Yes. Oh! The nice lady answered. The reason I'm calling is because it says it is a 5 dollar monthly fee on our long distance calling plan, which is fine, except that we aren't supposed to have any monthly fee, just a per minute charge of 12 cents. Which is great because we only call long distance on our cell phone, so it doesn't cost us anything, and we have the service if ever there is an emergency. Great. Then I remember that a month ago I got a call from a phone company saying that they could now offer me 9 cents a minute. Wow! Great deal! Hallie was screaming in the background, the t.v. was on, I didn't really know what she was saying to me, but I said yes to all her stuff. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. That's what led me here, sitting on the phone with this nice lady who is now telling me that if I don't want to pay (essentially) 6 dollars a mon...

Today our lesson in Relief Society (the portion of our church service where the women separate from the men and we have our own lessons.) was on Thomas S. Monson's talk entitled "Finding Joy in the Journey." If you'd like to read it, you can here . The teacher had women at various stages in life talk about five things that brought them joy in their lives right now. She had a young single woman, a young newly married woman, a woman with young children, a woman with young and teenage children, etc. You get the picture. Anyway, it got me to thinking: what do I find joy in right now? 1. My family. I've always been close to my family, but having them at such a distance where I don't get to see them as often brings them to my thoughts more often than when they were around all the time. Isn't it funny how that is? I think of them often, pray for them daily, and love them more than I tell them. Mimi reminded me the other day of how lucky we are to have al...

Hallie recently discovered her ability to make towers. Here she is a few Saturdays ago helping us unload the groceries, and then creating towers out of our food storage. I was quite impressed with how tall her towers were! Notice how she adds dimension by putting that smaller can in the middle! So impressive!

Well, a few posts ago you saw pictures of Hallie pretending to clean the top of a wheat container. She has a little sponge that she likes to wipe things down with. Actually, she'll "clean" with any cloth or sponge like object, it's funny. We were at the doctor's office for an appointment and while waiting for the doctor to come in she took one of her diaper wipes and wiped down his stool, and the bench, and everything she could reach in his office. He seemed to appreciate it when we told him about it. Here she is helping Daddy clean the bathroom on Saturday morning. That's the most exciting thing that's happened around here in a while. She is actually starting to be able to help out! She helps us when we bake bread or cookies. (She helps measure the flour and pour it in the bowl). She helps put away her toys sometimes... she's almost a big girl now! But really the most exciting thing that has happened is Devin's mom came to visit. That was...

What we have here is the classic struggle between good and evil. (There being no evil in a baby, we'll call it good vs. naughty.) I present you with Super Hallie, and her arch nemesis Super-Bad-Monkey-Girl. Please, if you have any suggestions for other villian names, let me know! Can Super Hallie save the day? Or will Super Bad Monkey Girl be successful in carrying out her devious plot to take over the world by her absolutely cunning cuteness?

Well, really it was the frosting that was crazy. Devin's mom sent us some cookie cutters for Easter, a church, an egg, a bunny, and a duck. We thought it would be fun to make some cookies and frosting and eat them. That's what we do, right? But since it's Easter, and not just any ordinary day, we had to make them a little special. So we found a recipe for lemon butter cookies, and changed that to orange because we didn't have any lemons, just oranges. So we made orange butter cookies (delicious). And then tried to find a frosting. This part turned into a bit more of a challenge than we had been anticipating because we were almost out of vanilla, and had used the rest of the orange peel and juice to rub a steak... we couldn't help ourselves, the orange rub we invented is so fabulous. So we were looking for a delicious frosting that didn't need vanilla or orange. Hmm. We found a traditional buttercream frosting in Joy of Cooking. Joy's always there ...

Just in case you are one of those people that can't get enough pictures of Hallie, please enjoy the following: There's a bunny in my pocket! I love Grambie and Pappy. I guess I'm pretty cute. I love my mommy. I help her with the laundry.

As you may or may not know, I have really cool grandparents. This post will feature my dad's mom. Her name is Marcia, and she's a seasoned traveler. Half the places she goes to visit I've never heard of, and the other half I worry aren't safe for her. She always comes back with neat pictures and stories, and little gifts for us (maybe not always little gifts, but we love it when she does!) She's not afraid to experience all of the experiences either. You know, riding the camel in Egypt, etc. Here are pictures from her latest trip. I might add that she is boldly doing something that I will never be brave enough to attempt. Ok ok, never say never. She is doing something I pray that I will never be faced with the opportunity of doing. How's that? You Go Grandma!

Well, March has really let me down. You come out of February all dreary and depressed, and hope that March will lighten your spirits because it's the month that brings in Spring, officially. Such was not the case this year. Our March was truly dismal. Maybe I'm just feeling bitter because of the way it ended: on Sunday we had 4-5 inches of snow. Yes, there were snowmen dotting yards all down the street. It took three days to fully melt (maybe four, I'm afraid to look outside today) and was just really uncalled for. February however, actually yielded some really nice days, and Hallie and I took advantage and she went outside walking around for the first time ever in her young life. Here she is, taking her inaugural steps in the cold cruel world. (Although it was warm and sunny this day in February.) Please note that she is wearing the cute little cherry shoes that Great Grandma Boling got her and sent to me about a week after she was born... she finally fits in th...