a few months of life

Some photo journaling of regular life....

01/02/2016  Luke starts scouts with the mo mos.  His first scout gathering was a big hike where he passed off a ton of requirements.  He loved it.    This is the text I got from his scout leader "Luke did great.  He's super funny!  He wrote his name on a map he drew, he wrote Luke the third.  I said you are Luke the third?  He said yep!  There's Luke the apostle then Luke Skywalker and then me!"  His scout leader is Tawni Rayman and she does an incredible job.  It would be such a hard calling. 

01/02/2016 - I can't even express how much I love this little person in my life.  His super baby-talent is expressing affection.  He will grab my cheeks and say "ki" and kiss me.  Or give me a tight hug.  I love it every day.  This pic is an after-bath snuggly towel boy.  Also, I'd like to document that it was on this day that my eye had some weird reaction to something and the lower lid swelled and puffed out like crazy.  Since then, it's happened 4 times.  Weird.    This was the end of the day so the swelling had gone down. 

01/03/2016  - Maryanne's first day in primary.  She is so ready to be in there.  And since I'm the chorister - she knows all the songs we sang last year and are singing this year because we sing them so much at home.   And she has the best teacher ever (Rachel Bradsher) who gives her little treasures every week that she takes everywhere with her.  Like silly puddy and puffball baby chicks.  

01/22/2016 - I think this was our only snow this year.   This was actually Joey and my 12th anniversary and also the morning of my flight to Utah to go see my mom get Weber County Mother of the Year.  And my flight was canceled, Joey's work was canceled and the kid's school was canceled so it was actually kinda awesome.   We all got to stay home and we played and watched our wedding video and I took a late flight out and barely made it to the luncheon.  BTW - In an effort to keep Luke's feet dry I just duct taped plastic bags over Luke's socks before he put his shoes on. And he's wearing Joey's snow pants.  You don't buy snow gear when it only snows once a year.  :)

 

01/22/2016 -  late that same night I got to Huntsville after enjoying the most delicious burger I've ever had with my dad from In-and-Out burger.  I saw the display Rebekah and my mom had been working on.  Here's half of it.

01/23/2016  Mother of the Year luncheon at the country club.  I was supposed to talk for 3 minutes on what a wonderful mother I had and why.  Impossible.  I tried so hard but still went for about 5 minutes.   I had a really hard time preparing for that for some reason.  I wanted it to be perfect and so every time I tried to write something it didn't seem good enough.  I ended up sort of winging it with a mix of my many drafts and a few last minute ideas from siblings ---soooo stressful!  I was SO glad when it was over.   That said, I was very proud of my mom and it was a lovely day of honoring her.   It was nice to think about ALL the things that I love about her.

Since I don't live in Huntsville, this just seemed so magical to me to come home to these friends staring at me.

01/27/2016  - The 100th day of school!!  This is pretty much the most adorable 100 year old lady I've every seen.  We are in the nurses office because I forgot to dress her up so I had to race home and gather up a few things and come back and get her out of class to dress her up. 

02/04/2016  -  Maryanne with her straight hair and her new shoes.   She looks so different with straight hair. 

02/04/2016  - Yeah, not really sure what he's so happy about.  Poor Freddy.  The kids got sick the first week of Feb and then again the first week of March.  In March I came down with a fever and had 103 degree temperature and felt terrible.  I'll have to find a picture of me because I was really sick and got that puffy eye again and I looked like I was the 100 year old lady.

02/12/2016 - Recovered and ready to roll.  I did not expect Freddy to skate but he saw everyone rolling around and wanted to SO bad.   The skate guy just let him have teeny-tiny skates for free to test them out and he just loved it.  I love his little adventurous spirit.

 02/14/2016 - Valentine's girls.   I never took pictures of the V-day boxes but Luke had a cool Pokemon box that was pikachu with a lightning tail sticking out and Lucy's was shopkins.

 Valentine's nap

Valentine Fondue

02/17/2016 - The terrible day that our favorite Amanda and her Drew and her Josh moved far away.  We miss them so much.  Their house is still empty and I just get sad every time I drive past it...so every day.

(the day she moved I spent the day helping them load stuff.  While my college boyfriend Jared Quillen and his wife hung out at my house and worked from their computers.  So, there was that.   hahaha.  I had seen on Facebook that he was in Memphis so I told them to come stay at our house.  And they did.  I hadn't seen him in probably 13 years or something and it was fun to meet his wife and stuff.  But yeah, I spent the whole day at Amanda's. But they had to work anyway.)  
02/27/2016 - Joey turned 38!!   I planned a big day of his 3 favorite things:  escape rooms, mountain biking and disc golf.   But then turns out he decided to be dr. do-gooder and go volunteer all day at Mid-South Mission of Mercy.  Jeesh, Joes.  But we snuck in an escape room with our besties - The Wilsons and the Schwartzes.  And went to breakfast at the Blue Plate afterward.   It was such a fun triple date!  And the escape room was carnival themed and besides the creepy clown - it was perfect for a birthday.  There was a ball pit and everything. 

While Joey was off being mouth stabby and teeth pully - we biked, rollerbladed and made huts at the dead end with cuzzies. 

That night - we ordered a ton of delicious fried pies from Fat Larry's.   Oh man, they were so good.  His birthday present was a kickstarter dude in New York who is making super thin wallets - which is Joey's dream come true.  I think it should be here any day now. 

03/01/2016 - Super Tuesday.  Well, I actually voted but Freddy helped.  We tried, America.  We tried.  (who are these people voting for Trump?  Blech!)

03/02/2016 Wacky Wednesday for read across america.  She wanted to make SURE she was wacky enough.

 03/06/2016  - This was that one Sunday that Joey was gone and Maryanne was super sick.  She fell asleep on this inner tube and her breathing was so loud.  I felt so bad for her.   I had invited Sister Long over for her birthday dinner but was alone and trying to help a sick Maryanne.  It was a stressful day.

Then this girl came to the rescue!!!  She came over and helped me and made the most delicious chocolate chip cheesecake.  This is a common occurrence to see a Malan in our kitchen on a Sunday afternoon baking a sweet treat.   I love it.  These are our bonding sessions. 

 Debbie enjoyed her dinner and chocolate chip cheesecake.  We love her so much!!

03/11/2016 - the Cremeans left us our old train table when they moved and it's just in time for Freddy to enjoy it.   Playdate with Ceece!  (caleb - c - cecil - ceece - ceecee)

04/01/2016 - the zoo.  Freddy with the newest baby giraffe and the spirit bear!  And Panda bear. 

 04/03/2016 - General Conference.  We never really know how to do conference.  It seems like if we try to get our kids involved then we spend most of the talks answering their questions and helping them with their conference packets.  If we just send them to play outside we can actually listen.  So we do a little of both.

videojournal from katiehale on Vimeo.

Video journaling
1/6/2016 - maryanne singing
1/24/2016 - deer jumping
1/31/2016 - Kate and Caleb were in Pinetop, AZ checking out the ENT scene so got the cousins for a couple days.  We love having the Wilson girls because when they are around, our home seems to naturally be filled with art and culture.  They form book clubs, spy clubs, art clubs and drama clubs.  This is a little clip of a play they did.  It was the first of many.
3/7/2016 - Joey went to Florida on a bros disc golfing trip and this was us picking him up listening to the CD he made of him doing kareoke to "Mama I'm coming home."  Seemed appropriate.
3/9/2016 - Luke's song he wrote called "The Happy Days"
3/30/2016 - Freddy being Freddy
04/10/2016 - Gracie filmed us driving home from church in fast motion.  I thought it would be good for me to keep because someday I will want to remember these roads I drive all the time.   We pass our house at the end because we drove down to Tom and Huck's and then turned around and went home.