Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve (for real this time). We read the story of Jesus' birth, using little figurines to illustrate. The three are all wearing their new slippers, which they love!  They were sure to leave the fireplace door ajar, and the front door unlocked, just in case. They left a plate of cookies and carrot sticks for Santa and the reindeer. They went to bed right when they were asked. We are so excited!

Christmas morning, we found a note from Santa saying thank you for the cookies, and that Rudolf and the reindeer liked the carrots. Annabelle read it and said, "So Santa IS real! And Rudolf is real, too!"
After cinnamon rolls, we dove into our presents. More jewelry kits, more books, dance shoes, dance clothes, Build-A-Bear certificates, more socks, a pair of kid cross-country-skis, 
lincoln building logs, boots, crayons, color wonder marker and pad sets (by the way, these were a hit! They stopped opening presents to color. There was even a fight over them until they realized they each got their own!), lots of socks (I can throw away the ones with holes now). Annabelle got her own set of scriptures, Jonah got a new pin-striped suit, 
clothes, wresting singlets (a spiderman one and a camouflage one - adorable!),
and to continue the list: picture frame, mop (I am so excited about this steam mop!), movies, flashlights (why is it that kids get so excited about flashlights?), and even more presents. My goodness! My two projects this year were picture puzzle blocks and the Grandma Carol Hallam picture story book. 

This year I worked on projects and picked out a few books, most of the other presents from us were picked out by Ezra. He is very good at picking out good presents!

As soon as present-opening was done, Jonah suited up for cross-country skiing outside. We were so happy he liked the skis present. We were worried he wouldn't, because last year he didn't have a good experience cross-country skiing. But he said it was the best present and headed right out to try them out. He even went down-hill skiing with them! Annabelle put on hers also and joined him. She didn't have poles so she wanted to use Ezra's. So huge for her! But she didn't care. It was pretty funny to watch.

Merry Christmas every one! I hope you had a wonderful day! I hope your dreams are coming true! 

Early Christmas Fun

We spent a few days before Christmas at Hallam's home. They played dress-up every day and jumped in the castle lots and played instruments for us. Did you know Jonah can play the trombone? And the violin, too. Annabelle, Grace, Saffi and Schafer are good at the drums. Annabelle taught Saffi to play the piano. Grandma has all these instruments available, so the kids take advantage and practice every time we go.

We pretended Monday night was Christmas Eve. What fun and chaos acting out the nativity. Annabelle and Jonah always seem to get to be Mary and Joseph. Grace and Saffi were angels again. Baby Violet played Jesus. Ezra was a shepherd. Susan and Emmeline were wise men. Olivia was the star.

I didn't get great pictures of our pretend Christmas morning (Tues morning). But we sure had a great time! Oh my goodness, barbies, jewelry kits, books, baby dolls, slippers, books, transformer mask (Jonah: "okay, that is totally awesome!"), more books, plastic colored table settings, a GI JOE (Jonah: "No Way!!), and socks, socks, socks. We were just showered with presents. We were so sad to leave Tues night, but home we must go!

Castle Fun

Uncle Justus gave all the kids an early Christmas present... a blow-up castle to jump in! Oh my goodness, the kids played in it almost non-stop the whole time we were there (set up in Hallam's living room area).

Olivia had a rough weekend not feeling well. The only time she smiled, really, was while she was in the castle (when the other kids were off doing something else, she would climb in by herself and play).

Happy Graduation, Heidi!

I started college (BYU) in 1996. After 3 years I took a break for mission and marriage. I did one semester at KU, then found BYU's independent study program. After 6 years of independent study, I finally finished!! I received my official diploma this past August. When family found out I didn't do anything to celebrate they decided something must be done! So the Hallams threw me a surprise graduation party.

Violet Cheney

Violet is Lizz and David's new baby. We spent the weekend in Minnesota to be there for the baby blessing. Violet is adorable! Also a good sleeper. She seemed very calm while we were there.

Visiting cousins

All the cousins together from the Hallam side of the family. Aren't they cute?

Schafer, Grace, Olivia, Jonah, Saffi, Annabelle, Violet.

Pajama party! Correction: FEET-pajama party! The kids plotted to each pack their "feet pajamas" so they could all wear them together. Popcorn and a movie.
The cousins eating together. They love having their own little table.
Twins? We didn't even plan to match them. When we noticed the coincidence we were very surprised. Jonah and Schafer are 3 years apart.


Baby Violet is two months old. I had fun trying to make her smile. She has so much expression on her face! Can you tell Grace is with me, helping me to make her smile, and Olivia is on my left, and she kept trying to poke Violet with a crayon - not much help.

Traditional Hot-Dog Roast

The Slaugh post-holiday tradition is to drive to our property in Ozawkie, build a fire, walk through the woods and explore, and roast hot dogs and marshmallows. It is the perfect camping experience - without sleeping over of course. We had a great time! The weather was not too cold. The first three pictures are from our walk. 

The kids thoroughly enjoyed exploring as we walked along. We found a deer lookout post, which Annabelle is sitting on here.
Jonah is posing here on the edge of a creek bottom. All those big rocks and moss and overhanging roots - what fun to explore! The kids even found some deer bones - Wow! What an awesome discovery!
Olivia kept trying to crawl close to the fire.

Happy Thanksgiving 2008

We spent Thanksgiving in Kansas this year. Jennifer and Sungti of course were there with Mom and Dad. Also Russ stayed the week with us. Joe and Joe and Hailey came up for the feast, as well as Grandma and Loyd, Jackie, John and Natalie. 

Going to the Zoo...

The Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha has lots of awesome indoor exhibits - perfect for going to the zoo in the wintertime. Here the kids are crossing a little bridge in the indoor rain forrest.
In this picture, we are in a tunnel with water all around us. So neat to see giant turtles, sharks, rays, and all kids of fish swimming all around us and above us. Fascinating!
This is a bubble to see into the water behind - where penguins were diving and swimming - so cool to watch!
This was in the desert dome. Annabelle and Jonah kept looking for crevices in the rock to hide in, or rock ledges to climb on.

Olivia's Birthday

Aunt Emmeline provided a birthday party for Olivia, since we were away from home (in NE). Emmey made cupcakes and we met her at her school so we could see where she teaches. Her classroom is full of kid's work taped all over the room. Did you know she teaches half the day in Spanish and half the day in English? She has lots of great ideas. Thanks, Emmey, for providing the birthday supplies, and for helping so much with our kids! You are wonderful!
Anyway, back to the birthday girl - Olivia loved her cupcake! Annabelle chose which cake mix to use (she insisted on vanilla - is that then a yellow mix or white?) Jonah was in charge of choosing the frosting. But he insisted on something creative like mint chocolate or white with green food coloring. Grace made things easy on us by choosing rainbow sprinkles.
The kids came up with idea to make a "party" for Olivia by blowing up all the balloons and throwing them all in Olivia's crib with her. She did seem to enjoy her own little playhouse. The room was full of giggles as the other 3 kids watched with delight.

Happy Birthday, Olivia Jane Hallam! You are one year old!

Leave, leaves and more leaves

Leaf fight!

Learning to walk

Food or Rope?

To Jonah, even dinner time is a time to tie things with rope. You can see he used his spaghetti to tie onto a pea pod and swing it around.

Jonah's rope-tying is getting out of hand

Jonah tied her up and just left her there - he went downstairs to play. I heard Olivia whining and found her like this. And of course I ran for the camera quick before rescuing her!

Enjoying a lovely fall walk around the block

Jonah made his own paper sack kite and tried to "fly" it the whole way. It was a windy day, with leaves falling on our heads! We gathered some leaves, too.

Olivia feeding herself

jumping in leaves video

Jumping in Leaves

Before Jonah left for preschool in the morning he said, "Mom, I'm going to rake leaves when I get home." And sure enough, he did! He was determined to play in a pile of leaves, even if it wasn't much.

Jonah belly-flopped into the leaves, did cartwheels through them, hid himself in them, and giggled wildly. 

Hiding in the leaves was very cute: Jonah first tunneled himself under until he was mostly hidden, then lay still for awhile, then popped out! When Grace tried, she tried tunneling in. But instead only her head went under the leaves, the rest remained visible, with her rear end in the air! I wish you could see the video clips I took. Too cute!