They grow up so fast!

This last week at Gabriel's pre-school he got to go dressed up in his costume for Halloween.

He had so much fun, and I think his costume is so appropriate for his personality.

Gabriel's class.


Gabriel with his teacher Miss Amy.


Gabriel with the teacher's assistant Miss Andrea.


I still can't believe my little boy is in school. He loves it so much.
He has so much fun learning and making new friends. It has just been so great for him!

Here is a picture of Noah too. He is almost 17 months!
How crazy is that??

This is of the two of them. They were sharing their fruit snacks and I thought it was so very cute.

An experiment in headbands

I've been feeling crafty lately, which lead to my adventuring with these. I've been seeing a lot of people doing cool things with leftover fabric. I was trying to make some sort of floral necklace, but ended up with these rope-like braided headbands. I actually think they turned out really cute for not being what I had originally planned them to be!

What do ya think?

So if you have some free time and some scraps of fabric, play around with it and see what you can make!

A Baby Story

I always love reading about everyone's different baby stories. I've been looking forward to when I have time to write down how our new little boy came, and now at almost 11 o'clock at night I have! So I hope nobody minds that this might be long, and I promise I will spare any gory details there may have been.

I was a week and a half overdue and they had finally given me a date that they would induce me. We were very excited. It fit in perfectly with Chris' schedule, which you know is just a invitation for trouble. He was supposed to graduate from sub school on Friday and had a test on Tuesday so we thought if we scheduled the induction for Wednesday we would be set... It was going to be perfect. Monday came and lucky for us Chris got to take his last test for sub school. I figured I had one more day to get stuff ready so I held off on packing bag for me and one for Gabriel ( BIG mistake!). I told myself I could just pack them the next day. At 3 am on Tuesday the contractions started and by 4 am they were every 3 to 5 minutes. I turn to Chris and said "Wake up I think I'm in labor!" To Chris' (as he must have heard this from me an innumerable amount of times before) he started to get up, get out of bed and get ready. At this point I'm frantically racing down the stairs to try and get things ready and as I pause on the steps to tell Chris something, I feel my water break! I knew at this point we were going to have to book it to the hospital. We drop Gabriel off at one of our friend's house (they had their baby a half hour after Noah was born, yes it was quite a day! :D) and when we get to the hospital at 5 am we found out I'm 4 cm and a half hour later I'm at a 5! At this point I'm asking every nurse in the hospital at what point I would be getting that oh so wonderful epidural... I thought I was being very casual about it, but looking back I can see I was approaching them with the utmost of desperation.
Luckily, it was only a half hour wait and although Chris nearly passed out from the size of the epidural needle, it was smooth sailing for the next few hours.
After pushing for about half hour we had a BIG, beautiful baby boy. All the nurses and doctors were making guesses as to how much he weighed. 10 lbs, 2.6 oz! and a cutey ta boot!

Meet Noah Christian Hall
Big Boy!

1 Month Old... can you believe it?

We love our new little man! He is absolutely amazing!

I'm taking pseudo bets...

since it probably wouldn't be good to make real ones :D

Here are all the factors:

No progress what-so-ever

My due date is in one week

I went 11 days over with Gabriel

Chris graduates on July 1 (Hopefully!)

My parents come on July 2 ( Yay!! :D)

Father's Day is on June 20th


Now the last couple I just put in if you want to take into account any ironic tendencies or "sassability" that our child may have :)

So everybody, any guesses as to when this little guy is going to come??

Something I swore I would never do...

Cloth Diapers.

I'm sure you've heard of them.

The hubby has been mentioning them for a while, but I quickly dismiss them because truthfully I find the thought of them....

Disgusting

Among other words.

Well folks, after the move me and the hubs sat down to do some budgeting. The truth is we have our heart set on a house in the near future, among other things we're saving for, and we thought it would be good to make a little road map to accomplish our goal.

I know... sounds so responsible right? ( Take a moment to be proud, go ahead :D)

Things were going dandy, until we came to the oh so dreaded "Diaper/Wipe" category.

EGADS.

The truth is Older Baby Boy is still sadly a few months away from potty training and when adding Younger Baby Boy's diapers to the mix... well, let's say the amount very nearly jawdropping.

We'd be spending more on diapers then we would be able to put towards a house... Yeah.

I was okay with it for a while, I thought I could handle that. So we don't get a house in the next 10 billion years, that's okay. If our car broke down and washer broke and the kids need new clothes... It's okay, Chris and I have two kidney's and I've heard you only need one.

Okay, so I might be exaggerating a bit :D, but you see where this is going.

Yep... cloth diapers it is.

Again, I have firmly said I would never, ever, ever do it. EVER. I then however ran into these online...
They just look so cute! One-size fits all with a fleecy inside liner and waterproof exterior. Big Boy seems to always get the worst diaper rash so maybe they will kind of help with that... maybe. They make it seem so easy (which I know it shall not be, it will be a big adjustment all the same). We got the Sage green for Little Boy and the Twilight Blue for Big Boy and surprisingly it cost the same as a month worth of diapers would have.

Still having my doubts... and lots of them, but I am willing to give it a go. We shall see if I'm going to become a firm believer.

Wish me luck! Sending a few prayers might not hurt either...

Among other things...

We have been insanely busy the past couple of months!

Since the last post we have had an almost graduation, then no graduation, family came to visit, then a job change, along with the latter came a move to Connecticut and through all of this our almost new addition has been taking up more space then my belly seems to allow!

We were so sad to leave Charleston and all our amazing friends that were there, but I feel that Connecticut is where Heavenly Father wants us to be and in the long run it will be better for our family. Anyone who knows me knows what a complete home-body I am, and though I like new places and adventures, I'm not one who enjoys having to move a home along with her. It's been hard to have faith that everything will be okay with each new move, but in each new adventure we are always blessed with a wonderful, outgoing ward, kind people and safety in our journey... and what more can you ask for then that?

Now if I could just get unpacked we would be set! :D

P.S. Yes I know... pictures pictures pictures. Hopefully I can get some up before Noah comes but we shall see :D

Pictures to come... I promise

Dear Readers (if you are in fact still out there)-

It has been a couple of crazy months!! Which is no real excuse but hopefully it sort of makes up for being very neglectful of this blog (except for changing the background about a thousand times!) The hubs found me an awesome camera for Christmas so we really do have TONS of pictures, just need to take the time to actually load them... which will hopefully be in a couple of days :D HOPEFULLY...

So I here are a couple of updates:

1. We are attempting some form of potty training... YAY! I think we're just going to see what the little boy wants to do for now. He's still not two, so I don't want to push it too much. He's actually managed to go a couple of times on the potty, but I do not think we will be wearing anything but diapers for a while. OHH how I dream about him not being in diapers before the next baby comes, but we shall see!

2. Our sailor is graduating in about a month and a half from the last school portion of his training. We are so ecstatic!!! To boot, we have family coming down... Could it get any better? I say it could not :D

Well, I'll get some pictures up in a couple days!

I ask this...

So what would you do if you saw this in your window ledge amidst a HUMONGO web?
Next... what would you do if you saw 30 to 50 of these cute Brown widow eggsacs on your porch and in between your double hurricane windows?
And lastly... what would you do if you saw these hatch into these little fellows in those same double windows right before your very eyes?

Honestly... I almost peed my pants, and then went to get Chris to kill them... quickly!

Dear Baby, Please Stop Making Mommy Semi-Sick

Geez, who's running this blog?!! Has it really been 3 months?? Craziness!! Gee, I hope everyone is still reading.

So, if you haven't heard we have some news...
We're pregnant with Baby Hall #2!!
We are super excited!!! (Thus the numerous exclamation marks :D)
Chris is hoping for twins... so we can name the Barnaby and Bailey.... hmmm... yeah...
we'll see if that happens.

More posts to come... I promise!!!

For Celiece....

My sister-in-law Celiece asked me, well I would say forever ago, to post a picture of the quilt I made for our bedspread with the help of my very patient Grandma :D So here it is Celiece, I am sorry it took so long!I'm still need to make a couple more pillowcases in the black damask fabric, but I just love the colors!! I don't have a picture of the other side, but it's a really pretty white fabric, which is nice because I can use both sides.

Here our some more pictures of our house... well mainly Gabriel's room.

These are the boxes I just got for his diaper table... they are cute as well as SO useful :D

Don't you just love this crate? My dad found it for me when he was here visiting the time before last... though I will not say where he acquired it...

This is one of the latest thrift shop finds. My mom found some other wonderful wooden toys (one of them is next to the rocking catepillar... it is so much fun because you can use all five sides plus Gabriel just loves it, thank you for finding it Mommy!) and the cutest rocking chair, but I don't have the pictures of all of them yet. I LOVE LOVE LOVE the thrift store here!!! This catepillar I got for 10 dollars and the wooden toy only 4!
Well I have tons more pictures to upload, but that'll have to be it for the day. Soon I'll bring out all the bug pictures I've been collecting, they are HUGE here in the south!

Lots of Love-
Eliza

Gabriel and his new fantastic word :D

He finally is learning some words!! Yay! I heard this one for the first time when he had knocked over a pile of books on our bedroom nightstand... he now uses it constantly!! Enjoy!

Happy Father's Day!

I just wanted to wish a Happy Father's Day to all the men in my life!
To my amazing Daddy who is one of the most caring, sweet and loving men you will ever meet!
To Chris who is the most wonderful husband and father!
and to Gabriel, future father :D Hopefully you will be as willing to sweep for your wife as you are for you mom!

Presenting: Part Artsy Photography

When my parents came to visit in March we walked through this market in Charleston where they sell things like candles, bags, sunglasses... you know you're basic vendor wares. Something that I saw there that I fell in love with were these photographs of simple things in Charleston like doors, food, gas lamps, and people. My parents were so nice to give me 3 pictures of the doors that I absolutely love! But, thinking about it I realized maybe it would be fun (and a little less expensive) to try and see what I could get from my little camera... so here are my trying-to-be-artsy photos :D

I have no idea what this pot-thing actually is, but it was at Fort Sumter... I know that much!
Can you guess what this is?

Another one at Fort Sumter... I actually really liked how this one turned out!
Mmmmm.... cupcakes :D


Gabriel and a mop... random, but you have to admit it is oh so cute!!
Well that wraps up this weeks edition of Part Artsy Photography :D Seriously though, I'm starting to really enjoy taking pictures... it makes you really appreciate all the beautiful things that surround you and that we've been blessed with. I've realized now whenever I'm in one of those moods I just grab my camera and take pictures of things I'm grateful for... little boy, the hubby, our home, our fun back yard, and of course cupcakes.

Lots of love-
Eliza

Wanted: New show for Monday Nights

This last week I was getting so excited to see one of my favorite shows...
I've always loved Jon and Kate plus 8 because there are not a lot of family friendly shows you can watch on television. For me it was something that I could watch that I didn't have to change the channel, and I loved seeing the ups and downs of parenting.

Monday night I put the little boy to bed, do a few chores, and then finally sit down to watch the season premiere. To my disappointment, it was kind of like watching one of these:Yeah, pretty painful to watch... and not like "the Office" painful where you can laugh at the awkwardness, but just sad, really sad. I just can't imagine where the rest of the season can go.

So needless to say there will be no more Jon and Kate plus 8 for me... which actually works out for the best, maybe I can use that 30 minutes towards working on that food storage closet :D

A long time coming...

Yes I need to practice this whole picture uploading, don't know where to start typing, confusion thing... but I have sadly been neglecting our poor blog!! No posts for couple of months... I am sorry to say I am ashamed of myself, I apologize. But on the up and up I have some lovely pictures for you guys... everyone say YAY!!! :D

Above is us at Chris' graduation from bootcamp... I just love Gabriel's expression: Who is this guy?! :D But we are so proud of Chris and the hard work he did!
You have to love the mossy trees!! Aren't they cool?
My loving parents came to visit us a month ago and we had a blast!! I'm so grateful I have such wonderful parents, they are truly amazing. This was outside of the building for tours to Fort Sumter. Gabriel just loved that fountain!
Above us we have the South Carolina beaches... they are fun but they can get oh so crowded! And below us we have Chris and Gabriel at Easter time. Chris is looking spiffy in his Navy uniform :D So funny story about this egg hunt. There were about 5 kagillion kids and parents and only like 2 eggs (okay yes I am exaggerating) But seriously it's not to far off! They had different sections for the different ages and 1-3 year olds had their parents help. So here is the conversation I hear from one of the mothers after the egg hunt is done.

Mother: Wow, that went fast! I don't think a lot of people got eggs this year.
Father: (glances in the basket his wife is holding) Oh yeah?
Mother: Yeah... they really need to put more eggs out there, I think some kids only got one... it's kind of sad.
Son: Mommy didn't we get eggs?
Mother: Sshhh!!!
Eliza:(silently glances over to the other woman's basket to reveal she had 20 eggs all to herself... yes my friends, she was the elusive EGG-HOG-A-MOMMA!!!)
This is our little weed patch outside that floods everytime it rains, which makes for a wonderful pond... if only we had some fish!
Gabriel looking cute :D

We have to keep ourselves entertained during the hurricane season... yes folks that's right HURRICANE SEASON! Luckily, me and Gabriel both love that South Carolina rain so I guess it works out okay :D

Will keep posting... hopefully more often :D
With love- Eliza

So I guess the last one was a bust...

I had an amazing amount of people that didn't believe that Gabriel looked
more like me than he did Chris... so I decided to re-do it. Okay okay you guys were right! :D

And a Happy Valentine's Day to you!

Happy Valentine's Day everybody!!!

Today, Gabriel and I had so much fun going out to Red Robin and the Sweet Tooth Fairy with some of my best friends. It was great fun and the sweets from the Sweet Tooth Fairy were absolutely amazing! We just love the way they decorated their store as well, it is just too adorable.

This was my Valentine's present to myself :D I'm trying to finish my quilt and when I saw this fabric I absolutely fell in love with it! So cute!
Me and my cousins, Emily and Jessica, had a little Valentin's Par-tay a couple weeks back... We watched a fun movie, and did some cute decorations for Valentine's. Yeah, we're pretty silly :D Spirit fingers!

This is my Christmas tree but I haven't taken it down yet so we decorated it! The chain is actually a countdown chain until Chris is home (12 more days!! :D) and then there's some roses at the top.
These are some cute boxes we made. I just love stackable boxes!! Each of us girls took one to decorate and keep for ourselves. It actually only took some scrapbooking paper, ribbon and some rhinestones... they came out so cute!

I'm trying to break into cupcake making ... this is just a vanilla cake with vanilla buttercream frosting. I really like trying to experiment with some designs with chocolate, so this one has some simple hearts that I just did with melted chocolate chips. I really want to do a lemon cake with a lemon curd filling so if you know some good recipes (for ANY cake, filling or frosting) let me know!!

Love- Eliza

In the Navy!

So in case everyone hasn't heard (my family, sadly, has had to hear me rant for a couple weeks now... I'm sorry for being a basketcase all!), Chris joined the Navy a few months ago and has just been waiting for his time to go to bootcamp. Gabriel and I were so lucky to have several months with him before he went, but time just flew! The time finally came and Chris left for boot camp on the 5th of January. We miss him, but know he is going to do awesome!

In a few weeks we'll have one of these in the family! Hopefully it will be my husband instead of a random stranger...

Ain't this the truth!! Well I guess this really wouldn't apply because women are allowed in the Navy now... but I still think it's cute!



I get to get my sailor kiss!!! I've only loved this picture forever! I think I'll opt for a different outfit though... I don't think I could work the nurse look!