10, 9, 8....

Happy New Years!!!

We rang in the new year like we always do at Tommy and Valerie's NYE party. And as always, we had a wonderful time! This year was extra special because our nephew & niece, Tyler and Hannanh, went with us. They had a wonderful time! And let's not forget that it was extra extra special since we now have Cady to enjoy it with. We were all talking about how "I" announced at this party last year that I was pregnant and this year she's here!! My how time flies!

Here's a couple of pictures from the party.

Cady was a trooper! She hung in there until 5 minutes before the ball dropped and I'll be darned if she didn't wake up 5 minutes after midnight!

Here's Cady with her Godmother, Valerie. Our pastor took the picture, not quite sure why he cut her head off :) Sure she won't mind though, she hates to take pictures.

And here's Ty hanging out with some of the girls at the party. Of course he's like his dad and knows someone everywhere he goes! He knew the girl in the pink.

Here's wishing you and yours a safe, healthy and happy new year!

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!