Porter watching football with Grandpa Frost- any time he sees Jeff watching football he climbs up on his lap & stays awhile


Jonathan & Hao on a 4 wheeler ride- Hao is a grad student from China that Laun knows so, we took him with us to Show Low for Thanksgiving. I think he had a good time. When he got off the 4 wheeler he said,"We don't have anything this interesting in China."

The men in the kithen cooking. This is something I love about the Hall family, the guys actually help cook food for Thanksgiving. They made turkeys, mashed potatoes, deviled eggs, etc.

John made this awesome turducken, which is a de-boned turkey stuffed with a de-boned duck, which itself is stuffed with a de-boned chicken, with lots of amazing stuffing between each animal- wow, that is a mouthful. Anyways, it tasted amazing & I think it looks like it belongs on the cover of a Martha Stewart magazine.

Marlee Cates 1st Thanksgiving & she especially loved the yams & pumpkin pie.

Here is Hao enjoying the Thanksgiving feast

That is one big pile of grandkids, all we are missing is Brandon & Marys bunch. They are in order of age & the 2 little ones had to be held by John & Michael.

The pies & let me tell you there was a lot of them. That pretty much somes of the food part. All I can say is that the Hall's know how to do Thanksgiving. There was 4 turkeys (all cooked differently), pheasants, & a ham, there was also all the usual side dishes & some extras, & there was somewhere between 14-17 pies- there was so many that I lost count.

The next day we went to Alpine to cut down Christmas trees, every family went home with a tree.

On the search for the perfect tree

Marlee enjoyed being carried everywhere, as usual

Our fam, Marlee was laughing at something & wasn't looking at the camera, so Laun was turning her head for her(:

The kids played "horsie" on the aspen tree & every kid got a turn

The boys got pretty high up

Marlee on the other hand did not go very high but, she sure liked it

Here we are with our tree

Roasting hot dogs

I think Marlee had some where around 900 crackers, j/k but she sure can eat

The trailer full of trees

A Marlee size tree

Marlee smiling at her cousin John-John

Laun & I are looking good in our boots. I promise that in real life Laun really does have an amazing smile.

And Marlee has an amazing smile too & an amazing cry.

Before heading home we stopped by the Lollipop Shoppe & the kids loved picking out candy. I personally went for the thrifty ice cream- chocolate malted crunch is the best flavor ever.

Laun thought that even Marlee should get some candy

We had an awesome holiday full of food, fun, & great company.

The boys last day at Estes...

Here is Clayton with his teacher Mrs. Marinelli on his last day at Estes


This is Ms. Hoge, the student teacher



Here is Porter with Mrs. Kittle



Claytons student of the week poster:




Porters student of the week poster:

We will definitely miss those wonderful teachers at Estes

This is what trying to watch a movie with Marlee around looks like...

Freinds are like flowers or just big things that Marlee wears for about 3 seconds, until she pulls them off

Once she discovers there is something on her head it's all over. Now some of you may be thinking, isn't that a little large for her head- don't worry, her headache goes away in just a couple of hours. Hey, beauty hurts, just kidding about the headache part by the way but, not the beauty hurts part(:

I am a Child of God

This is my favorite primary song ever. I love the message of this song. We sang this song in Relief Society yesterday & it sure made me miss my Cooper. I used to sit in the NICU & hold his hand & sing this song to him. I sang it so much to him that he probably got sick of it. I wonder if Coop misses us too, or if the perspective in heaven is so different-do you miss people on earth when you are in heaven? Lately I have avoided looking at his pictures, it is too hard for some reason. There is something about the holiday time that makes me feel empty without him around. I usaully feel like I handle this stuff well but, I hit a hard time now & then. Pretty soon I am going to take Marlee to the hospital to see where her big brother Coop lived his short 2 weeks on this earth. They won't let you in the NICU when you have no baby in there, so I will let her look through glass at the pod he was in- you can see where he used to be. And I will tell her all about him but, I am sure she knows him better then me, because they were probably chilaxin' in heaven together before she came to us. I am sure there will be waterworks that day but, I think that is why I am having a hard time lately because I have been putting off taking her there. I have been there several times since his passing, just not since we have been back to the Tucson area. I am thankful for the time we had with Cooper. I am thankful for everyday that I have with my kids.

Can you guess which parent is the favorite in our house?

We might need to get a bigger chair.

And by the way, my boys do own plenty of t-shirts, they just choose not to wear them around the house lately.

The boy's pets

The boys really like their lizards & king snake. I really like them because they do not cost any money. The boys have enjoyed taking the snake to school to show their classmates. Once the snake escaped in Clays class for part of the day & the teacher is so nice, she has still let him bring it back since then!

Our day yesterday

When the boys got home from school we carved their pumpkins. Since Halloween has come & gone we carved out leaves instead of jack-o-lanterns.

We roasted the pumpkin seeds later that night

Happy Thanksgiving!

When I went into Marlee's room she was standing up in her play pen, this is the first time she has ever done that. She is changing so fast!

Here she is watching the boy's box. They have a matress in the loft & it is their "boxing mat/ring"

She loves to play with bouncy balls

She does this with her arms lately, not sure why but, it is sure cute.

If you look closely you can see her moving her lips funny to make noises. This is her new favorite trick & she loves it when you copy her.

I love seeing her reach into the toy box to get toys.

She plays a lot more with toys now.

Here she is getting loves from Porter, maybe a little too much love.

I love this onsie she is wearing...

Laun gave her a taste of ice cream last night, she made some funny faces because it was so cold.

I realize I probably post way more pictures of Marlee than of my boys. It is just that she is continually changing so much. This age is so crazy & flys by so fast!

What Marlee's hair looks like when she wakes up from a nap

Marlee can stand if she holds on to something. I think she looks cute standing on her tip-toes.

Here she is stuck under a chair, she does this a lot lately

She screams a little & then finds a way to crawl out