Jude = 1

Tonight we took our almost one year old son, Jude, to McDonals to start the celebration of his first year. He had a blast and he ate 1/2 a Hamburger and a bunch of fries. Jude has been a a wonderful joy to us and his love of life has been contagious. He has had a eventful 1st year ... He has been hospitalized for RSV, moved to Texas, lots of family time and many other adventures. He has such a wonderful personality and has the sweetest Heart of any boy I have ever met. He is making strides daily and growing up before our eyes. He now can walk about 8-10 steps in a row, he eats table food ( loves soft tacos) and likes to say "Dada" a lot! He is so curious and loves to play with his big Sis. He still loves to open mouth mooch his Mama and still a big time Mama's boy. We LOVE our special baby boy!!

Bethany proposal.

Quote from Bethany this morning after she found the treat I left for her in her bed....

"Dada, when you grow up I want to marry you, I want you to give me a ring like Mama, I want it to be blue, no...Purple." 

Christmas is coming!

Bethany - Bethany is very excited about Christmas coming up here in a few weeks. She is addicted to Holiday movies on Netflix and she is learning all the 'traditional' holiday fare from them. Today she came up to me and said " Dada, I want to make Ginger-man cookies". Very cute. She is also very worried that Santa will not be able to fit down our chimney and we have talked it out and we decided to let Santa into the front door. She likes that but now convinced that we need to sleep on the couch on Christmas Eve to make sure he gets in. She is also exited to make cookies for Santa and has drawn pictures that she has hung on the wall for The fat man. I love to experience Christmas thru her eyes and I love watching her so excited! O, and she wanted me to get a tree for her very own for her room, so I did. 

The ice skating

About 2 weeks ago my beautiful family spent a wonderful evening in Allen, Texas at Disney on ice. This was Bethany and I third Disney on ice adventure and Cindy and Jide's first. We were given tickets to us for Christmas by Mimi & Pappy. We had a blast! The Disney on ice shows have been a awesome backdrops for some awesome Dada-Daughter dates and it will always hold a special place in my heart because of the special moments that Bethany and I have shared. Thanks Mickey!

Thanksgiving 2013

We were blessed with another wonderful Hall Family Thanksgiving/Christmas. We have turn a wonderful event into an extravaganza taking Turkey Day and adding in Christmas. Really is a great chance to get together as a family, love on each other and celebrate the Holidays in Mimi and Pappys country home in Brenham. My absolute FAVORITE day of the year. 

I also had a blast with my Mom on thanksgiving this year on our annual Black Friday trip. We always go out to Walmart or Target to brave the crowds and get some smokin deals. This year we scored with a 70 inch TV for my Pops. It's glorious! I adore my family, each and everyone of them, next up... December 25th! Tree is up, bring on the fat man, Bethany can't wait. 

Prep Foods

Today's ends my 5+ year run as a team member/Associate Team leader for the Prep Foods department at Whole Foods Market. I can't believe that I've been here that long. I remember when Cindy and myself were having Gelato at Whole Foods on their porch in Cherry Creek, Colorado and Cindy asked me I Ever thought of working at Whole Foods. I hadn't. Now I have done every job and every position in the prep foods Department. I have decided that I am going to step into a team member role in the Meat department at Whole Foods. This comes mainly because Cindy is ready to go back to work and for the next five years while the kids transition into school I am going to work nights and Cindy will teach during the day. It will be awesome for our finical health and will really be a great blessing to the entire family. 

The phrase 'The only thing that stays the same is that everything changes' has been in my mind lately. I guess that is true but there are somethings that DO stay the same and those are the most important. The things that matter. The things that don't say ill give to you if you give to me. The real gifts in life never come with a price tag. In the end, titles and prestigious job don't mean squat. Don't get me wrong I feel like my years here have grown me up and taught me so much about business and the Culinary  arts. I will always look back and love my time in Prep Foods. 

It time, it's time to move on and grow. I'm excited to see what God has in store for me next. 

Holidays

We are well into the Holidays and coming up on 1 week until Thanksgiving, the best day of the year!! I'll back up a little...

We had a wonderful Halloween and found another reason to fall in love with our town. Bethany and Jude dressed up and we went out on the town to scare up some candy. Bethany was WAY into it this year. She dressed up like a ballerina and Jude dressed up as a Bat. Both very cute!

 

Bethany scored big time on the candy filling her pumpkin up! Our neighbor was over run with kids and families and it was such a awesome experience feeling the community envolvement and the overall excitement!

I want to add this picture of "BatBoy" Jude to embarrass him when he becomes a Teenager in 13 years. 

Now our focus shifts to Turkey day! We will be celebrating in Brenham, Texas with the Hall clan and be partaking in our newer tradition Thanksgiving / Christmas all in one glorious a Day!!! Talk about FUN! Can't wait! Happy Holidays my a Friends and Family! 

Settle Down

We are settling down in our new location here in Mansfield, Texas. We have started routines and found a groove here. I am so thankful that my family had faith and courage to move down here and give it a shot. 

Jude has been growing before our eyes. He is just days away from walking. He loves to babble and make noise. He has the most tender heart and he LOVES his mama more than anything else. He kisses and hugs her constantly! He is so adorable. So proud of my son!

Bethany is becoming a little woman. She likes to "mother" me and make sure I'm OK all the time. She also loves her brother and it is so awesome to watch Bethany and Jude play together. She is still my heart and she knows that Dada is a push over for her. I adore my Girl! 

I am very at peace now that my family has a house and town that we can thrive in and that they all love. Cindy has done a great job of making this house a home. God Bless our Home and all who are in it! 

I found my thrill, On Blueberry Hill

Alright, 3 weeks in, Fast & Furious, try to keep up!!!

My family have now been residents of Texas for around 3 weeks. We have been blessed tremendously already thru my work, Cindy's work, The Hills Church of Christ, being close and enjoying the company of relatives & Staying at the very gracious Holly & Aaron's house. A major victory that we had just a few days ago Is that we closed in our house! We got more money than we thought and we feel overjoyed that everything just worked out as beautiful as it did. And just as we are throwing away our Colorado Keys we are getting to take possession of our brand new keys in........Mansfield, Texas! Yes, first house we looked at, incredible house and price, great town just south of Arlington and even a brand new roof! It's almost comical how much God is taking care of us down here. I feel so loved and in awe by his Faithfulness. When God called me to take my family and move to Texas, I'm glad I listened!!! 

The Bradley D Hall Family

412 Blueberry Hill Lane

Mansfield, Texas 76063

Away we go!

Sometimes a picture says what is needed to be said. 

1St week In Heaven, I mean TEXAS!

I have been down in Texas for a little over a week now and I have taken residence in my brother's apt and couch in Hurst, TX. I have really enjoyed the area Caleb lives in and I have also enjoyed hanging out with my baby brother. 

Work as been been a whirlwind of all the usual 'getting to know you' and 'getting to know the store' type of activities. My new Whole Foods is in Arlington, right up the street from Texas stadium and the ballpark in Arlington. The prep foods team that I am working with is a great group of hard working, long time team members who really know what they are doing. The sales are slower than I am use to but I consider that a blessing that I can  try to help them grow. This week has really been great and I am so happy that I already feel at home in my new store and soon be contributing to the team like I really hope to do! 

My head is still spinning, this whole process has been extremely fast and furious. That's been a blessing in its self. I work well with a quick past life, my poor wife is opposite of me and it has been a little trying on her. Cindy has been amazing and has had to watch the kids and pack solo in Colorado. What a woman!! We only have have a few more days until the second phase of our move to Texas starts. Until then, lots of phone calls and texts. 

The Last Supper

My wonderful family and I went out for a last night on the town for our last night as a family in Colorado. Here is some pics!

407 Revere Street Aurora, CO 80011

Well, only took 24 hours and our first family house is now under contract to someone else. We have been extremely blessed to have called this house our home for the last 4 years and I will always remember this as the house where I brought home my 2 babies and where we grew into the family that we are today. It wasn't without struggle, every room in this house is rich with stories and contains the sweat of Mimi & Pappy, Nana & Granddad, Caleb, Sarah & Jeremy, Holly & Aaron and of course my beautiful wife and yours truly. I cannot thank y'all enough for your help and support. Some of my vivid memories are...

• Painting the entire house while Cindy was prego

• Staining the fence with Aaron

• Mimi & Pappy making a beautiful Kitchen counter-top

• Doing the house base boards with Caleb & Pappy. 

• Multiple trips to the Aurora dump

• Pappy & Cindy completely remodeling the main bathroom. 

• Grandad and Cindy remodeling the master bathroom. 

• digging up the old cement clothesline with Caleb

• Cindy, Grandad & Nana making a garden. 

• Me and my massive Demoing of the basement and kitchen. 

• Resanding/Finishing all the hardwood floors

• Cindy patching missing boards on the floor of the master bedroom. 

• My love/ hate relationship with the $10,000 bathroom remodel that we ended up having to cut a whole in the ceiling 3 times to locate a leak, it grew mold, the baseboards warped, the drywall got cracks, the leak found out was coming from the master shower which wasn't installed properly to began with!!! (Maybe I'm  not going to miss this house after all!) 

- And so much more!

I will truly miss this house and I will look back on it and our time in Colorado as some of the best years of my life! 

 

The Mercy Prayer

I have been given the wonderful honor of being apart of Colorado Community Churches lead pastor Robert Gelinas' new book launch team. The book is called "The mercy prayer" and it is a powerful look into the always answered prayer in the bible. I have read two chapters so far and believe that it has blessed my life already and I am excited to continue to read and grow. Part of my gift back to Pastor Robert is my reviews and feedback in the form of social media in order to help promote the book that comes out July 30th. I also have the privilege of giving a e-version of the book, absolutely free to the first person who responds back to me with your email address / Name!!

The web address for the new book is http://mercyprayerbook.com  

Stay tuned for a full review of the book in about a week, I hope that you enjoy hearing about this book and take this to learn more about this simple prayer. 

Bethany's cute quote of the day

Me: Bethany, did you know that I love you more than a million kitties!?
Bethany: Dada, I am not a kitty!

Family pictures / June 2013

Colorado

Well, after 8 wonderful years its time to start saying our farewells to this sate that has been such a blessing to me and my family. Let me back up, about 2-3 months ago I had a light bulb go off in my head that said in part ..."why not move to the Dallas, Fort Worth area?" I started to think about it, thought about it some more...then called Cindy to discuss my crazy idea. We talked it over for quite a while on the phone then vowed to continue the conversation on-going. As we talked about and prayed about this idea we just couldn't come up with any negative reasons not to go. Sure we love living here, we have a great house, good job and close to nana and granddad but the positives just keep on mounding. First, I was excited to get Bethany & Jude closer to more family. DFW is the central location for 90% of our family. 2nd, it could be a step up for me career wise at Whole Foods. 3rd, we have quickly outgrown our house and we would be able to purchase a step up in housing in Texas as well as the fact that it is cheaper to live in Texas. Because of all those reasons we felt that we needed to carefully consider the possibility that this might be exactly what our family needs to take a step forward & upword. One major hurdle was Finding a job. I looked outside Whole Foods because I knew that it was a long shot of me getting the same position or level at Whole Foods that I had worked so hard to obtained in Colorado so I didn't even apply for that job and applied for a lesser position. I got an interview and was not given the job because they said I had the skills of an Associate  Team Leader (my current position). They then contacted another recruiter and got me an interview for an Associate Team Leader job! I was humbled but excited for the opportunity and drove down for the interview. I receive word back the next day that I got the job and the pay was even more than I could have dreamed of. Wow, when God blesses you when you are faithful and trust him he doesn't hold back!! I am just in awe, daily, as I watch the Almighty's hand at work in our lives and can't wait to see what comes next....one more big hurdle to jump though, selling the house. Be praying. I know God will be faithful. But anyway, back to Colorado. So many wonderful things happen to me and my family here that I wanted to list a few...David letterman style (not in any order)

10. Colorado Community Church

9. Our 1st house

8. I meet the love of my life and got married here!

7. Bethany

6. Jude

5. Snow and cold weather 

4. Wonderful careers 

3. Culinary school / Teaching licenses 

2. Friendships / Nana & Grandad 

1. Love , Love, Love!!! 

Thanks Colorado   

Panera Bread...thanks!

Well as I sit here I am no longer an employee at Panera bread. I was extremely fortunate to find this job which fit into my schedule with whole foods market for the last year and a couple of months. This was a gift I wanted to get to Cindy and my entire family, The gift of Cindy not having to work outside the home. I know my family has been blessed beyond measure because of the fact that Cindy has become the house manager and was and is able to raise our two wonderful kids. What this means for me is freedom, Freedom to have a good nights rest, Freedom to spend more time with my beautiful wife, And freedom to play with my kids. I'm proud of what I accomplished at Panera but also proud of the fact that I'll be going down to just one job. A big thank you to my wonderful wife Cindy for supporting me this last year and a couple months and also supporting my decision to go back to one job. Goodbye baguettes... hello sleep!! 

Quotes of the Day

Bethany Anne Hall Presents...

Top 2 quotes of the day!

1. Bethany and I took a quick Dada/Daughter date to share a cola and grab some healthy snacks (candy) at the local gas station. We grab my reusable 100 oz cola cup and took off, We had a great time and went home to enjoy our sugary treats. I poured Bethany a cup of cola and after drinking some of her drink she turned and looked at me and asked "Did you put salt in this?" I replied "No". She took another sip and turned back to me and asked "Did you put salt in yours?"
2. As a result of all the sugar that Bethany had ingested only a few hours before she had trouble falling to sleep. I was getting ready for my overnight shift and saying goodnight to everyone and Cindy was still trying to get Bethany down. I checked on them and Bethany started trying to get me to convince Cindy that she needed to get up and that she wasn't tired. She insisted on seeing me to the door and as I was giving her a goodbye kiss Bethany whispered in my ear "I need you to get me some more sauce" (sauce is Bethany word for Hot Tamales the candy)

I love Bethany's personally and her sense of humor and the cute, smart things that she says everyday could fill a book but I thought you might enjoy these two gems.

Dear Friends and Family of Jude Bradley Hall –

         This time last Monday our family was settling down for bed time when Cindy and I started feeling that our 2 month old son, Jude, wasn’t acting like his normal self. He hardly would open his eyes and he had a persistence wet cough that he could not shake. He was also beginning to “pull” his breaths and having a hard time getting oxygen with all of the fluid in his lungs. He had a doctors appointment that next day at 4pm and we both realize now that we were in denial that he was sick enough to go to the ER. We had called the nurse line multiple times and we got the same story that if he wasn’t running a fever he was fine. We kind of knew what he had…a cold, because our Daughter Bethany had just started to get over a cold and it was quickly grabbing a hold of both Cindy and I as well. We took Jude’s temperature (with 3 different thermometers) and found out quickly that his temp was up over 100. We quickly made plans to go to an urgent care in Aurora where we live in a suburb of Denver. I looked up the directions and Cindy packed up and took off to the clinic. After 30 mins Cindy called me almost in a panic and said that the clinic that I sent her to was closed. She then called the nurse line of the Colorado children’s hospital which is only 5 mins from our house. The nurse said that since we were so close that we should just come on in to the Children’s Hospital ER. I truly believe that this is the first time that God lead us that week.

It was extremely frightening to see Jude laid out on the ER table with 5 or 6 strangers surrounding him. All I could do was cry as they put a tube down his nose to suck all the mucus out and stick an IV in his tiny arm. They hooked him up to oxygen and then he got a chest x-ray. After 3-4 hours in the ER we were moved to the PICU. Mom and Dad Eckstein came up and met us there. The next 2 days were filled with numerous deep suctions, another IV, an oxygen device called a c-pap, Tylenol, antibiotics, 24 hours of fasting, and many tears. The first time I spoke with doctors they thought he might still have several rough days left. All the nurses where saying a week or two was normal for this type of sickness. But we had put out the word to as many friends and family that we could reach and your prayers were already strengthening Jude and guiding his nurses and doctors. Thankfully Mom Hall had arrived to help as well. Baby Jude began to make small but steady improvements and by Wednesday evening he was moved to a transition room where he had a restful night and was able to eat whenever he wanted.  After that your prayers continued to strengthen him and he made such rapid improvement that the doctors released him on Friday! Jude was diagnosed with RSV Bronchiolitis. The good thing is that he shouldn’t get sick from it again. Next year it will be a different strain but he will just have a cold if he gets it and not have such a hard time.

Jude’s rapid recovery and strong will to fight and get better quickly are all a part of Gods amazing ability to heal as He sees fit. Thank you all for lifting our baby and us up. Your support was felt all this last week as we cared for our son and daughter. We are so thankful to be surrounded by friends and family who are willing to help and pray for us at a moment’s notice.

 

Thank you all so much and we love you!!

 

-Brad, Cindy, Bethany & Jude

  

Jude Bradley Hall

My Son will turn TWO MONTHS OLD here in a couple of hours! What a huge blessing it has been these last 8 weeks getting to know my wonderful baby Boy. I'm so blessed to be the father of two fantastic children. Jude has just started to start smile and laugh. His fat checks make it hard for him to smile too big but when the mood catches him right he lights up like Christmas. Of course his mama can make him laugh the most. Here's to the best son a dada could ever ask for. I love you Jude and your Dada is so proud of you!!!

My Family

I have been joined together with my wife Cindy's family now for almost 5 years now and I love to be considered a member of this wonderful clan. I have become very close to Nana and Grand-dad and consider them my second set of parents. Also I am blessed with wonderful sisters like Holly, Tammy and Jenna. Godly bothers like Ethan & Aaron. And of course I love being an uncle to Sweet Maddy. Cindy, Bethany, Jude and I had a wonderful time of fellowship in Colorado Springs for our annual Christmas/New Year celebration. I always enjoy the love and joy that is present when this group gets together and I am so glad that Bethany and Jude have such a loving and godly family that loves them and cares for them. We opened presents, ate lots of good food and of course did lots of talking. Maddy and Bethany had a blast playing with Nana and each other as well. I enjoy the relaxation part of it, it feels great to do NOTHING sometimes! What a wonderful end to the Holiday season and a great start to the new year!

Happy New Year 2013

As the storm passes and we can finally come out of the haze of the Holiday season I think I am ready to look back and reflect on what took place place. Don't get me wrong, i absolutely love the holiday season but it seems that sometimes I just crave the drop of the New years ball. My Holiday season starts really in October when Whole foods starts having Holiday meetings and we start getting ready for the massive amounts of food that we will have to produce. They build up and work load is huge and it truly amazes me every year how we get it all done. It really is amazing to see. The 3 days leading up to Thanksgiving at Whole foods was ridiculousness, long hours and food leaving the store in groves. After T-Day things seem to easy up a little but the month in-between seems taxing in other ways. Its almost that your ready for the new year before Christmas is over. I try though to not make the holidays all about work, especially for my family's sake and for the most part I think I do a good job at it. This Christmas was made special by the birth of Jude and Bethany's new found excitement of Santa. We were blessed to have a white Christmas and huddle indoors from the 4 degree weather with Cindy's parents and enjoyed the day together  We made a Turkey dinner and enjoyed watching Bethany tear through the presents like she was rabid. I always miss it when its over and long for it to come next year. All in all this was a head spinning, crazy, life-changing Christmas and i got everything i could ever want. Thanks Santa!! Here's to a wonderful 2013....Cant wait!

My Son, Jude Bradley Hall

I am proud to announce that my son, Jude Bradley Hall was born on December 18, 2012 at 5:56pm. We have been overjoyed and feel blessed beyond all belief to be given this gift from God. Cindy and I feel like our family is complete. We have spent the past first 3 weeks of Jude's life bonding and enjoying his sweet, calm personality. He was born in the same birth center as Bethany and the birth went a lot like Bethany's birth. Labor was fast and Cindy did an Amazing job. I am so blessed to be the Father of two wonderful kids!!