Park, zoo, and more

Kaisley is 11 months old!!! WOW!

She had a blast at the park

Brookston on his way up to the slide

Brookston petting a bunny at the zoo

Then petting a Chinchilla

Playing at the park at the zoo

The BIG slide!!!

Kaisley had a BLAST!!!!!!!!

They were sliding together...so cute!

Mr. Cool decided to lay down on the slide

Brother and sister

Brookston and Henry brushing the goat

Brookston was brave and pet the little gator

Playing on our trampoline...this just cracked me up!!!

Kaisley is such a happy girl!

Sliding at the zoo

A quick clip of the kids sliding together...they must have done this 20 times!

Kaisley's first art work

Kaisley did her first piece of art work at church last Sunday.

We loved seeing this when we picked up our happy little girl!

She's doing great and loving church, which makes us feel good!

She SLEEPS!!!

Yes, I'm talking about Kaisley...my baby girl has FINALLY learned how to sleep at night! Better late than never right? She's been sleeping great for over 2 weeks now, but I didn't want to jinx myself with a post after only a couple days.

We did a little sleep training at 6 months old and it went GREAT. Very very easy and almost painless. But, we went on vacation about 4 weeks later. We were in a house full (10 adults and 3 kids), so I did what I had to do to keep her quiet..as in feeding her a LOT at night.

So, we get back from vacation and I just sort of go with the flow for a few weeks and decided, okay, time to go back to the same sleep training. So, at 8 months it did NOT go well. So, I did what I had to do again for a litle while.

I was ready to try again right before Christmas, but realized that was bad timing with guests staying for about 10 days. So, Christmas came and went and we went back to sleep training. Again, it went GREAT! Thankfully a "bad night" is now 9 hours of sleep, followed by eating and going back to sleep for 2-3 hours. But normal is now 10-11 hours. Sometimes even 12.

THANK YOU BABY GIRL!!!!!! Mommy finally gets to sleep at night!

Week with Nana and Papa

Our cutie pie on Christmas Eve

Our other cutie pie on Christmas

Reading books with Papa

Brookston saw a movie with Nana and Papa

Making a Gingerbread house

LOTS of jumping on the new trampoline!!!!

Making Christmas cookies (yeah, we did this AFTER Christmas!) :)

Papa, Brookston, and Kaisley on their computers during breakfast

Decorating Christmas cookies

Dancing at Boutin's on New Year's Eve

(Videos to come!!)

Nana and Kaisley smiles!

Christmas at the Halls

The tree on Christmas Eve...Santa has come and the presents are waiting!

Maybe if I would have posted this a week ago, I would have had TONS of pictures and stories, but...well, Christmas was over a week ago now and we've been having too much fun with Nana and Papa visiting...so, I'm just posting a few favorites from Christmas day!

Kaisley opening a present on Christmas morning

Brookston opening his FIRE TRUCK on Christmas morning

The Hall family gathering...total chaos and total fun!

We had intentions of taking a few pictures, like not just the family, but everyone who was there (since we had some non Hall members there too), but well, as you can see with the number of kids and the ages, you can't always get a lot of pictures in! This was the only one we got!
(Do you see my son????? What's up with his silly faces?) :)

Neighborhood Chirstmas Lights Contest

WE WON 2ND PLACE!!!

Each year our neighborhood has a Christmas lights contest. We realized it existed 2 years ago when a neighbor won 3rd place. So last year, we did quite a bit more to our house than just lights around the door and a wreath (like all of the other years) and we were slightly bummed to not place. So this year, we went and bought a few new things, which obviously did the trick!

My very favorite parts are red and white starts on the roof and the big tree with lights all over it. (However in Louisiana, the tree loses a little of it's beauty since we still have leaves on the tree!) :)

This was taken on the night our neighborhood also does luminaria.

The kids in front of the 1st place house