Don't deck the Hall's, that would hurt

Well, by the Advent calendar on the fireplace mantel I see we are 4 days into the month of December. This is the eye of the storm for the holiday season were the ramping up for Thanksgiving has come and gone and Christmas is a couple of weeks away. So here is a recap of my favorite day of the year Thanksgiving/Christmas (or Thanksmas if you will). 
We were blessed to have Mimi, Pappy, Caleb, Sarah, Aiden, Cora and Uncle J take the 1,000 mile trek to us in beautiful Aurora, Colorado. The main reason being is that Cindy is getting ready for the big push. They all arrived Thanksgiving eve (except Uncle J who flew in the next day) and I was working that day. I ended up working 14 hours the day before and 10+ hours that day. I came home to a wonderful Ham dinner and some catch up time with everyone. I was blessed to have the next 3 days off to enjoy with everyone. Thanksgiving day was an incredible day of family and feast. I was blessed to cook along side my Mom, lovely wife and sister Sarah. The meal turned out perfectly. The 19# Turkey that my beautiful wife brined for 36 hours was so dang succulent that you could have cut it with a butter knife. What a wonderful feast it was. My pops was in hog heaven because of the rare event of both Texas football teams were playing on Thanksgiving, An all Texas Turkey day football afternoon...Thy will be done. We also had are Christmas gift exchange with the family that afternoon. It was extra special this year to watch all the kids as they have that excitement of ripping and tearing to unveil there treasures. Later that night after playing some 'rock band' (one of my gifts) we had to do some serious planning for the mission to unfold later that day under the cover of night. The ops name was code name: BLACK FRIDAY or operation Big Savings. we lined up with around 300 of our fellow Black ops agents and infiltrated the local Target down the street. We got in at 8PM and everyone agreed after the mission that it was the smoothest one we had ever been apart of especially last year in Brenham when mom got ran over by an overeager Wal-Mart shopper. Our annual shopping spree is when I usually buy all my Blu rays for the year. 
The next day the girls took another mission to Joanne's for some...will whatever it is that women buy at those places and is men went out for CheeseSteaks and to see the Movie Lincoln. Fun was had by all. We are very blessed to have a wonderful family and this Thanksgiving will go down as one of my favorites. 
Next up.....Jude!!!

Happy Hall-O-Ween!!!

Happy Halloween to all my family and friends. Now begins the most wonderful time of the year.... The Holidays!!! Cinderella had a wonderful time at the Ball and Gus-Gus (Cindy) made sure the Princess was ready for her Prince charming!!

Dancing Queen!

I love to see my daughter experiencing pure joy and fun!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAe0o30IrTg&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Life in the great Colorado outdoors.

Tonight we had a camping trip, to the backyard. We had a blast. It was a beautiful night and we made it all the way until 9:30pm in the tent until Bethany proclaimed "Done".

What a month!!!

Ok... Here it goes. I want to bring you through the last month starting around July 18th and up to the present. It was a life changing month. Here it is.... In sort of order.

1. Associate Team Leader - I was promoted at work and awarded the title of Associate Team Leader. I have been working towards this for almost 2 years now at Whole Foods with training and interviewing. There are so many advantages to my new role in that I am a part and over 3 teams now and will get a lot more knowledge that will help me continue to grow. It is a smaller store but I am loving working there and growing so much. Next step is Team Leader!

2. Century 16 shooting - as I drove to work July 20 I heard the news on the radio. Just 2 miles from our house there was the worst mass shooting on US soil and that put the spotlight of the world on our neighborhood. One of the victims went to our church and many others affected as well. It was surreal to have all the major media in our town.

3. Someone's got a birthday I wonder who? - Yep, I turned 36. It feels pretty good. These last few years I have really begin for the first time feeling more comfortable in my own skin. Things are going great for the Halls right now and I couldn't be happier. I am so blessed and just love seeing my family grow and succeed.

4. O Boy, O Boy- Last week my wife and I found out that we are going to have a baby boy! We are beyond excited to welcome in a son. Even more so that everything looks healthy and on track. We picked the name Jude Bradley Hall. Cindy came up with it and it is perfect. We now just have to wait until December 20!!!

5. My Sweet Love - I am amazed by Bethany everyday. She has officially become a toddler. She has the greatest personally of anyone I have ever meet. One of the things Bethany loves to do is sing and dance. She is loaded with musical talent. She is always putting on shows. She just moved to a new room with a big girl bed and everything. Be prepared, if you come over, she will want to show you her room. O, and in 2 weeks she will turn 2!! I am so proud to be that little girls dada!!!

As for Cindy and I... Well we are just really enjoying life and every minute of our time together.

Baking some Bread so I can raise some dough.

As I take a break from my baking it's 1:45am. Just got done baking off around 100 Baguettes and now helping ice cookies and shape pastries. All and all not a bad way to spend a night, Unless you like sleeping that is!

Cute!

Something Beautiful!

Transfiguration

At the beginning of this year my wife and I sat down and evaluated where we are and what goals we might want to shoot for in the next couple of years. Things for us were great! We were and are blessed beyond measure and comfortable with jobs and our living situation. But we asked our self this question,,,"What if?". What If we broke out of our comfort zone, dream big, made a plan and then went after those plans and goals with prayer, faith and hard work. We are still in the midst of this Transfiguration period but in the growing pains and long days and nights we are truly seeing the blessings that God is raining down on us. I am very proud to say that December 20, 2012 my wife and I will hold another precious gift. It has been the greatest gift and blessing of my life to be a Dada. I am so humbled and awestruck To become a father to another child. What a wonderful gift. God has truly been present with Cindy in her transition. It has been a blessing to myself, Bethany and the daily life of our household to have Cindy in her new role as a house manager. I love that she can be her own boss. And speaking of work, God has continued to bless our family through Whole Foods. God has put new coworkers and bosses in my life who have taught me so much and helped me grow to new levels at work. I just was promoted to a back-up Specialist role which is a ordering and receiving role which will give me the skill set needed to continue to grow. I was also blessed to get a p/t job at Panera as a baker and I was amazed that this job came just in time with a good salary and a very perfect schedule. God is truly at work in our family and as our family and friends we ask and would appreciate your prayers for us as we grow and try to realize and grab on to the blessings that God has in store for us.

If this was college...I would be graduating!

I wanted to publicly say happy Anniversary to my wonderful wife Cindy Hall. What a wonderful 4 years it has been and the next year is shaping up to be the best on yet!! I can't wait to see what's next!!!!
I love You!!!

I feel like Chicken tonight

This blog is more for Bethany 15-16 years from now more than anything else so I wanted to document 2 new words that Bethany has adopted and their meanings according to Booger Butt. Please to enjoy!

1. Peet-zee
This is Bethany's word for pizza. She has fallen in love with the Italian treat and can even conquer an entire slice. She will eat pepperoni and cheese but she is not to picky.

2. Chickens
The term "Chickens" refers to any manner of winged beast that roams the earth. She has referred to geese as chickens as well as parakeets. This chicken umbrella Bethany has created makes life much more simpler, and it's just really cute!!

My beautiful family!

Sometimes I'm over whelmed with the unbelievable blessings that my God has put in my life. None more precious than my family! Thank you God for my family!

Bethany is too cute for her own good!

On a daily basis, Bethany will do 20-30 Extremly cute things. Like to day for instance, she was playing her piano and was trying to make the demo play so she could dance and sing along. She was pressing the Demo button multiple time pausing it every second push. I looked at her, held up one finger and said "Bethany, only push the button once and it will play." She look at me, reached over and pushed the Demo button once, held up one finger and said "Once". She proceeded to do this multiple times after each demo ended, pushing the button, holding up one finger and saying "Once".
But the cute item of the day I wanted to talk about is about the classic Childerens book humpty dumpty. Bethany received this book in the mail from her cousin Maddy and she wanted us to read it to her. After a couple of times through the story Bethany started repeating the words "Dumpty Dumpty" She continued saying the phrase multiple times throughout the night and hasn't said it since. Do I have the cuitest girl in the world or what!!
DaDa loves you Bethany!