Tis the Season...

Season's Greetings!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and got everything they wished for! I certainly did! All I wanted for Christmas was to have a wonderful and memorable first Christmas with Cady. And I got it :) Larry said recently that she won't remember her first Christmas, but he would, and he wanted it to be special.

I've been trying for years to get Larry to start some traditions with me at Christmas...to the point I think the trying part was getting to be the tradition! So this year he finally caved and started some with me.

On Christmas Eve-Eve, we made our first trip as a family to the Elks Lodge in Bedford to see the Christmas lights that they display every year. Then on Christmas Eve, we spent the afternoon with my dad and little sister, Ashleigh. After which we ran home and grabbed Madie and went over to my mom's house. Since there is so many people at Mama's on Christmas day and her new dog, Cody...aka Wild Child...and Madie play so "ruff" together that we decided to bring her over early to celebrate Christmas with Nanny and Papa. Mama and I cooked and talked and cooked some more. Once we got home, Cady got to open her one Christmas Eve gift (we always got to do this when I was a kid). She received some Christmas Pajama's! I read "The night before Christmas..." to her. She went to sleep before we got to spread the Reindeer Food over the lawn.

I had been looking forward to Christmas morning for months this year. Not for the gifts but because we got to stay at home this year!! Cady must've known it was a special day because she woke up at 7:30am and was ready to go! We opened presents from Santa and friends. It was really a wonderful time.

This is my sister in law, Tina. She loved on Cady and put her down for a nap. She is such a wonderful person and I'm so happy that she's apart of our family. Cady loves her too!

















And here's Sweet Baby Cady, out for the count. Christmas wore her out!


On a side note, a big Congratulations goes out to our friends, Laura & Matt Lane. They welcomed a son into the world this morning around 8am. Mason weighed in at 7lbs 7oz.
Welcome to mommyhood! It's the best place ever!


Happy New Year! Be Safe!

Happy Holidays!!

I'm a bit behind but wanted to wish everyone a Happy Holiday season! As usual we had a busy Thanksgiving, but really enjoyed it because it was Cady's very first Thanksgiving! We had a great time with the family and of course went shopping on Black Friday...yep, we are part of the "crazies" that get out there at 3am! But it's so much fun :)

We have our tree up and have some decorations up at the house. Christmas parties and wrapping presents...you can tell it's the holiday season! I have made my mind up that nobody is going to put a damper on this Christmas. Larry and I will never be able to get back our first Christmas with Cady and I refuse to let anyone dampen my spirits this year. You always have that Bah humbug pop up and this year I'm not listening to them :)

I'm so very excited this year because for the first time since Larry and I have been married we will spend Christmas morning at home!!!! We always get up early and rush down to his mom's house for Christmas morning, but now that Cady is here we will be having Christmas at home from now on. We have always worked around everyone else since we didn't have any children, but this year things are a' changing :) Not trying to be ugly here, just very excited!!

We recently took Cady's 3 month pictures....she's growing so fast!! Sorry they are so streaky, my scanner is on a downward slope. Enjoy!!

This was her Halloween costume...she was a dragon. We even got her to say "rawh" a couple of times :) And of couse everyone knows "rawh" means "I love you" in dragon! And believe it or not, she was actually asleep in this picture! She'd just finished a bottle and wanted to take her cat nap for the evening.

And this is her monster blanket. Meant to be a Halloween blanket, however Cady loves on it every day. It goes with her to the sitters, on trips, to Nanny's house...everywhere! Plus it's so cute :)

Pictures from Cady's Dedication

As promised, here are some photos from Cady's Dedication on November 2nd.


Here's our sweet baby Cady. She did so good during the service! We love you!!!
This one is of the our family.
Front row L to R: Davina, Tina, Cady, Mike, Kristen and Rose (mama)
Back row L to R: Larry, Hannah, Tyler, David and Daryl

Cady's Godparents. She's so lucky she has two sets!
Tommy & Valerie and Andrea & Mike

Tommy and Valerie...her Hokie Godparents...hope it don't rub off!!

Andrea and Mike...her WVU Mountainteers/Hokie Godparents....don't mind the WVU so much :)

Cady's Godbrothers...Jeremiah, Jacob and Joshua. They are very proud big brothers!

Cady and Isaac...the future Mr and Mrs Vernon! Isaac was born a month before Cady and is the youth pastor's son and pastors grandson.

Hope you enjoyed the pictures! We are going today to have some done for Cady's 3 mths!! Can you believe it!

Sweet Baby Cady

On Sunday November 2nd, 2008 we had our sweet baby Cady dedicated at our church. It was a very nice service filled with praise, music and worship. We had those closest to us there to share the day. In attendence was Larry and I, Nanny and Papa, Uncle David & Kierstin, Uncle Mike, Aunt Tina, Tyler and Hannah and Blake. Clara came in from WVA and her God Grandparents, Barbara and Floyd were there too. Amy, Stacy, Hayley and Zack even made it.

Her Godparents Michael & Andrea and Tommy & Valerie stood up with us at the alter. David and Michelle sang "thank you for giving to the Lord". I just love that song and I pray that is how Cady lives her life. We dedicated ourselves to help Cady along the right path, as the godparents did too. Then Gary and the church prayed over her. It was a wonderful service.

Afterwards, we took loads of pictures (I'll add some more when I get them). But here are just a couple for you to see.

Here's one of our family. She looks just like her daddy :)

Here's one of our family with Gary. He's our Pastor and we were so happy that he did her dedication for us. It was very special.

We had a nice family lunch afterwards at our house. It was really nice to spend time with the family and just hang out.

On a sad note...again...seems like I'm including way to many sad notes lately. My step-Grandmother passed away this morning. Catherine Henson. She was a very nice person and I'm truly saddened to see her go but she is in a much better place now. Please include my family in your prayers tonight.

It's almost Spooky time!

I tell Cady almost every day that "It's almost Spooky time!" As most of you all know, we are big, correction, huge fans of Halloween! Just come look in my basement...10+ boxes for Halloween and 2 for Christmas. Sick I tell you :)

As you can see in the picture, Cady is going to be a dragon for her first Halloween! She actually seems to like the costume...for now. We are going to take her to a few places so she can see everyone and hopefully be able to give some candy out at our house too. We weren't able to last year, so we're hoping this year we can.

As of today, Cady is 11 weeks old! I tell you she is growing way to fast! I am trying to take a picture (or 50) of her every day. I have some really cute ones with her sporting her really cool shades :) She can't wear the hats because they are too big on her but she'll wear her sunglasses all day!

Finally getting back into the groove of things at work again. I am really surprised that I remembered how to do everything! I have such a bad memory, even before getting pregnant, that I just knew I'd forget everything!

On a sad note, my stepmom, Donna, who passed away last year after a 4 year battle with cancer, her mom passed away on Monday. Helen Long, age 66, is now with her daughter. We are going to the funeral tonight and unfortuneately have to take Cady to it. My little sister, Ashleigh, is coming in for the service and hasn't met Cady yet that's the only reason she is going, but sadly this will be Cady's second time going to a funeral. Seems like that is all we ever do anymore.

Bundle up, stay warm and get out of the Halloween candy!

Such a good girl!!

So yesterday was Cady's 2 month checkup and for you mom's out there you know what that means...yep, it's time for shots!

The check up started out nice enough...she was weighed (a whopping 12 lbs 10 oz!!), and measured (24 inches long). Then the doctor came in (the best doctor we could've ever gotten for her) and checked her out. Said every thing looks great.

Then the nurse came in (enter dramatic music here). Larry made me be the bad guy and hold Cady while she got her shots. So the big bad nurse (who was really quite nice) gave her the Rotavirus vaccine first, a sweet liquid, so Cady liked that. Then she brought out these needles. I was holding her hands down and the nurse had her legs. The first shot went in and Cady's eyes got as big as saucers! Then the next two were over before you know it. Cady let out one big scream and one giant alligator tear and that was it. Larry took her (again, making me the bad guy) and just loved on her. She fussed for a second before we realized it was feeding time and that was it. She did wonderful and we couldn't've been prouder of our sweet little Cady.

I called the sitter a bit ago and checked on her and of course she was a little more sleepy then normal, but Tammy said that every time she's woke up, she's been very pleasant and her normal happy baby self.

On a happier note, we have bought her first Halloween outfit! She's going to be a dragon! Larry's idea, not mine. I wanted her to be a spooky spider, but noooo, Daddy wanted a dragon. Either way she will be just precious. I'll take a million pictures and post them.

Besides for that, all is normal in the Hall house. Getting ready for Cady's Dedication at church. We're really looking forward to that. She'll have lots of family and friends there to support her and her Godparents will be standing up with us.

Until then, Happy Haunting!

Back to work...

Today was my 3rd day back to work after 10 weeks of being home. It hasn't been as big of an adjustment that I thought it would be. Of course, I'm not really a stay at home type of person anyway so it's good for me to have somewhere to go every day. However, that does mean that I have to leave my sweet little Cady behind at the sitters, but she loves Tammy! This morning I left her giggling and smiling...which makes my day much easier knowing that my baby girl is happy.

Speaking of baby girls...Cady turned 8 wks yesterday!! Can you believe it?! On Tuesday October 7th she will turn 2 mths old. But that is a good day to turn 2 mths because it will be Larry and my 8 year wedding anniversary :) 8 years, unreal. It has been such a wonderful 8 years (with the exception of the inlaws drama, of course). We aren't able to go on our annual trip this year but are planning something fun for next year. Maybe we'll just wait again and do something really big at our 10 yr. OMG, 10 yrs!

Tonight we are heading to our first Amherst game of the season...we are about 5 or so behind, but not without trying. For various reasons we haven't been to any games this year except for one and that was a Rustburg home game (they lost). Cady even went with us! She seemed to like the noise, however, Rustburg fans can't compare to us Amherst fans when it comes to noise. Tonights game is actually Amherst vs. Rustburg, in Rustburg, so we'll see who's loudest :)

Cady has a check up on Wednesday of next week...she starts her vaccines :( Not really looking forward to that. But she's such a good baby so we are hoping she'll be fine.

Until next time :)

We lovingly announce....

Cadence Nicole Hall was born on Thursday August 7th at 11:27pm. She weighed in at 9.6 lbs and 22 inches long. She has dark brown hair, blue eyes and looks just like her daddy. You can view her beautiful pictures at www.centrahealth.com .

My water broke at 7:21am that morning and Larry came home to get me and off we went. After a very long day she finally decided to come that evening.

Mommy, Daddy and baby are home and doing good. Trying to get into a routine and getting to know our little Cady.

One day left...

Well, tomorrow is "D" day...well, my due date anyway. The likelyhood of it happening tomorrow seems very slim, but here's hoping!! I've been out of work since last Friday and trying to take it easy, but feel like all I've done is clean, clean, clean!

Bit of an update: At my last OB appointment (last week) everything was looking good. Doctor said that we are going to do an ultrasound this week to see how everything is going in there. Said she's pretty high in my uterus and he thinks she's sitting on top of alot of fluid so he wants to check it out. Larry and I had joked several times before that she would come on August 8th, so it seems that since she's in no rush to come out. Even though I was convinced that she would be here in July, seems like she is comfy and doesn't want to leave her little home.

Pretty short blog this time, but after my appointment this week, I'll update everyone again. Hope all is well and good :)

Pregnancy portraits and semi-update!

Well, after a long time coming we were finally able to have some pregnancy portraits done! If you would like to check them out, please feel free! Here's the site http://www.photoreflect.com/pr3/store.aspx?p=48815 Click on D Hall, then you may need to hit continue, and there we are! We even included Madie in a couple! Since she is our first baby :) Now we just have to decide which ones we want!! They really did turn out great!

Well, I went for my 33 wk appointment last Weds. Doctor says everything is looking great! Blood pressure was 110/60, weight looks good (thank goodness :) and our little girl is "ready". Ready? What does that mean, exactly! Apparently she has moved into the birthing position and I have dropped enough that our OB is saying that she is ready when the time comes. Here I am, all alone at my appointment about to fall off of the table when he says ready. All I could think of is "great! I haven't packed a single thing!" (Which will change this week, I promise!) He said that he's not changing my due date, but will be surprised if I go more then 4 weeks. Which, lucky me, happens to be the week of a full moon! Wives tells, be darn! So I guess we'll see.

But as of tomorrow, I will only have 6 weeks left...that is if the little booger sticks with my plan :) But I doubt that happens. Anyone want to place a guess? We've got a pool going!

This past Saturday we had a baby shower. It was very nice! We received such lovely warm wishes and heard such great stories from the other moms. It was very special and I don't know how to thank the hostess'! They did a wonderful job! Every thing was just beautiful!

Hope everyone is enjoying your summer so far...as for us Larry is working like crazy and I'm at home getting ready :) You know me, Miss Organized! Our best to all!

Counting down...

Yesterday we officially started out countdown to the arrival of Baby Girl Hall! As of yesterday, I am 31 weeks pregnant leaving only 9 short weeks left! Of course the doctor likes to remind me that I can go anytime 2 weeks before to 2 weeks after my original due date. Which is fine, except when I get to thinking that means I may only have 7 weeks left if she comes early or whew, 11 weeks left if she's late. Which if she takes after either side of the families she will be late :)

Currently the doctor says I'm looking great. My blood pressure is "excellent" (to quote him) and I'm progressing beautifully. We had a tiny scare earlier this week. I hadn't felt much movement on Sunday and going into Monday (compared to Saturday night) so I went to the OB on Monday to get checked out. I was placed on a fetal monitor and we could hear her heartbeat...actually very strong beat of 140-160 beats, so our concern lessened. However, we couldn't "find" her. The nurse moved the monitor around forever and finally after about 10 minutes we found her. The little booger had slipped over to my far left side. That's why I couldn't feel anything. So we stayed hooked up to the monitor for about 45 minutes all the while trying to get some movement out of her. Larry finally came over to my left side and talked to her. That's all it took was her Daddy's voice because she was up and moving then! She did a couple of big kicks and flips for us and the nurse was very pleased. Needless to say, we were very relieved.

We have finished painting her nursery and all of her furniture is up and waiting :) We are having a couple of baby showers over the next couple of months so we'll be more prepared after them. I just can't believe how time has flown by! I remember thinking "I've got plenty of time, I'm only 9 weeks" and now I've only got 9 weeks left! Amazing!

I've started on my every 2 weeks appointments (should have about 2 more) then I start my every week appointments. So more updates to come! Stick around!

Sad day in the family...

On Monday May 19th, our family dog, Mr. Ike, received his angel wings and went on to a better place. He's been in our family for 13 yrs now and he will be missed. His health has been going down hill for the past 6 months and it's been a rough time for him. Ike was about 17 yrs old.

He hadn't been eating much lately because of an infection in his gums so my mom and Stepdad took him to the doctor and got that fixed. However, he just never really recovered and never ate enough. He was just getting so weak and tired and it was time for him to go to a better place.

Mama and Daryl just returned home from 7 days in Hawaii and we were watching Ike during that time. I'm glad we got to spend some time with him before he was gone. It was a very hard decision for my parents to make but it was for the best. No sense in prolonging poor Ike when he was in such bad shape.

I'll never forget the first time Larry came over after we got Ike. We (Larry, Mama & I) were sitting in the den and Larry reached over to me. Ike perked up and took off flying! Came about an inch from biting off Larry's nose! Taught him a lesson then and there...don't mess with my family :)

Lots of you have met Ike and will remember him as a sweet dog, which he was. Please keep my parents in your thoughts during this time. Ike was their "baby boy" and always will be.

Have fun chasing the cats in puppy heaven, Ike! Keep an eye on us until we meet again. Love you!

Just wanting to say hi!

Everything is going just fine here and we just wanted to say hi to everyone! No real updates to tell. Went to the doctor on May 1st, still having a girl :) I go on the 20th for my glucose test and begin my every 2 weeks appointments. I just can't believe that we are in the home stretch! I"m at 28 weeks now with 12 to go!

We've got some friends coming tomorrow to help paint and hopefully before our yardsale on the 24th we'll have everything together and in the baby's room. It's starting to feel real now and I'm just too excited! Larry is getting excited too. He now comes to bed and puts the remote on my belly to watch it move because she won't do much when he rests his hand on her. So he at least gets to see the activity instead of feeling it.

Gotta get, hope all is well!

It's official...

Larry will be out numbered! We found out this week we are having a girl!! I kept telling people that is what it was going to be, but no one would believe me. We did the ultrasound on Tuesday and we were very thankful that Mama got to join us for it. She had never saw an ultrasound or heard a heart beat before!! It was very exciting.

Here are a couple of our little girls first pictures. Isn't she beautiful! The ultrasound tech kept saying that she was a cutie and Larry said how can she tell? She looks like a Halloween costume right now! He's too funny! Poor guy had her check several times just to be sure of the "girly parts" :) I think he knew all along, but had to see if for himself.

We are going out to register soon and get started on the room. Now that I know the gender for sure, I can get to painting (well, his dad can get to painting that is :) and I can get to decorating. I'll be calling on Valerie's help with that I'm sure. She says she is itching to do some decorating! We've bought a few things here and there but now we can get serious :) Gotta run for now, more updates soon!

From the beginning...

Okay, since we have family here, there and everywhere anymore, I've decided to start a blog. This way I can keep everyone in the Hall family loop and give updates on our new addition as they come.

Just in case you are wondering about Baby Hall, here's the latest update on him or her. So far everything is going great. Little to no morning sickness, the headaches are finally starting to subside and Houston, we have movement :) On March 18th Larry was able to feel the first bits of movement from our little Peanut. He has pressed his ear up against my belly to hear the heartbeat and gets this amazed look over his face. He's getting excited now that there is movement. Plus, the baby loves to hear him talk. Every time I say anything, I get nothing! Larry has the magic voice :)

We are going for our big ultrasound next week to make sure everything is looking good and to see if we can find out the gender. Hopefully, because I'm tired of calling it a him/her all of the time. My guess is that it's a girl, but we've got some friends (you know who you are) that are 1000% sure its a boy. We'll have to wait and see! As I type this I'm getting "kicked" in the side, knowing my luck it's the football player coming out of him!

As some folks know already, we aren't planning on sharing the name until after the little one gets here. Sorry about that, but we wanted to keep them a surprise. We do have names picked out and I'm dying to share them, but you'll have to wait :)

Well that's about it for now. I'll post again after our appointment next week...hopefully with pictures of the "goods"!

Hope all is well in your neck of the woods!