Another fun adventure!

So, Monday night Mike got a call from a friend in Utah asking when we were coming back because they needed another soccer player for the new season. Mike asked them when they were starting and he said tomorrow (they had a game at 11:30 pm)! Of course Mike said "I'll be there". We had just barely finished moving into our new house (we started the move on Friday) and packed up our bags Monday at 10:30 pm so we could drive to Utah and make it to the soccer game the next day.

At 7:30 am Mike had the car loaded and was going to drop off some trash at our friends house, (thanks Erick and Mandy) because we don't have a garbage can yet. As he was backing out he ran the car into our house! Luckily nothing happened to the house (except a little black paint) but our car is scratched pretty bad in the back. So, we left a few minutes later and I had kicked Mike out of the drivers seat because of the incident. We were on our way to my Dr. appointment and I pulled off the freeway and got to a stoplight that said "no turn on red." I was in a hurry so I stopped but went anyway and got pulled over...the cop was really nice about it and let me off with a warning and just told me to go get my drivers license in Arizona. So, we went to the doctor and ran a couple other errands and made our way out to Utah.

As we were driving up I got a voicemail from a lady in our new ward who had brought us dinner the night before. I realized after listening to her message that we had dropped off her dishes to a different family in the ward who had brought us dinner on Sunday night! I felt so stupid and had to call her back to explain what we did and since we were already half way to Utah I couldn't even go back and get it to her. A few minutes after I talked to her, Mike got pulled over for speeding and got a ticket. This is now his 3rd speeding ticket in less than a month!

The only good thing that happened on the way up to Utah is that the boys were such angels in the car! Madden slept most of the time and Emerson was so good and hardly watched movies. He just looked out the windows and pointed at every single car that we passed. We are finally here in Utah and hopefully we can stay away from getting pulled over for a little while. Now you can probably see what I meant in my last post that we like to keep life interesting!

Need a good laugh?

So this morning we got ready to take Mike to school. He had class at 9 am so we walked out the door at 8:30. When Mike tried to unlock the car the keyless entry would not work. We immediately knew it was the battery because it has been needing to be replaced for a while. We had no neighbors around to jump us so I thought I will run (yes literally) over to Walmart and buy a battery and Mike can stay home with the boys and take the old one out while I am gone. Walmart is about 1 mile from our house so I took off running and it was close to 90 degrees already. The run was really hard because last night Mike put me through a good work out and my legs and arms were so tired!

I made it to Walmart and bought the battery but I didn't realize how heavy it was. There was no way I was going to be able to carry that back home by myself. I looked around and found a cooler with wheels and loaded the battery inside. Meanwhile, Mike is at home taking the battery out of the car. Emerson is sitting in the jogging stroller watching him. Emerson had his sandals sitting next to him in the stroller but not on his feet. After Mike got the battery out, about 5 minutes later, he looked over and Emerson was gone. He looked all around the garage and around the car but he wasn't there. He went in the house and looked all over and called his name and he didn't answer. He ran outside and ran down the driveway area, turned the corner and saw Emerson halfway down the road. Some lady had pulled over and was trying to talk to him but he could have cared less. He had put his shoes on by himself and ran down the road kicking rocks.

So, Mike called me and told me this story as I am pulling a cooler at 9 in the morning down a busy road. I am crossing this busy intersection and I hear a "Sister Hall" being yelled from a car. I turn around and it is a lady in my ward asking me if I needed a ride. I felt so dumb and told her I was okay because I was almost home. As soon as I get to the other side of the street a friend from my ward pulled over and asked if I wanted a ride. My arms were killing me and so I said yes to her. It was such a wild morning and so funny! So, if any of you are in need of a good laugh just picture me pulling a cooler in my sweats in 90 degree weather down a busy road.....it was pretty entertaining for all those driving by I am sure!

Thanks Jamie for the ride home and for dinner last night, you are the best!

Madden James Hall

Welcome baby Madden James Hall. Madden was born on Tuesday April 14 at 10:06 am. He weighed 6 lbs 14 oz and was 19 inches long. He has got really cute dimples on both cheeks.

Going into labor this time I really wanted things to go different than last time with Emerson. I got my wish but some ways were not what I was hoping for. I got to the hospital to be induced at 4:00 am. When I got there I was checked and was already dilated to a 4. They started me on pit at 5:30. By 6:30 I was starting to feel some good contractions and asked for the epidural before it got worse. Unluckily for me the anesthesiologist was tied up with other people and didn't make it in to do my epidural until 9:15 am. By this time I was in SO much pain I thought I was going to die! As soon as they finished my epidural at 9:45 I was still in crazy amounts of pain and knew something wasn't right. Mike grabbed the nurse right after they walked out of the room. She came back in and she checked me and of course I was fully dilated and ready to push. Needless to say my epidural didn't have time to kick in so I had to just deal with it. I still had to get an episiotomy but everything else went really well and I made it through.

Even though labor was so painful and hard my recovery has been so much better this time around. I got to go home the next day and I am up and moving around pretty well. Emerson is adjusting a lot better than I thought he would. He likes to look at him and take him things but he doesn't want to touch him or hold him at all. He has been really sweet and tries to take him his binky or a ball. He doesn't love it when I am holding him but is still doing better than I thought he would be. I will try and post more pictures as soon as I figure out how to do it better.

easter bunny visit

Taking Emerson to see the Easter bunny at the Midwestern easter egg hunt was equally entertaining as it was with Santa at the Christmas party this year.  After we tortured him by making him sit over by the Easter bunny he would cling onto us and kept looking back to make sure we were not going to take him over again.  I must be a really mean mom if I put him through this knowing what his reaction will be, but I have to admit, it is so funny that I can't resist!

The color code

I have been getting ready for the baby to come and started my deep cleaning of the house.  I was going through old books and saw the color code from a psych class I took.  I decided to take the test again and see if I was any different than I used to be....I am.  It is amazing how much being a mom and wife has changed me.  I was telling Mike about it and he decided to take it too.  Before he took it he said that he didn't believe any of it.  After we started reading a little about our colors he decided that most of it was true.  We were laughing so hard at some of the things it said about each of our colors and how they interact together.  It was funny that it helped us both realize things that we could do to help each other out that we never did before.  Mike is so yellow and I am mostly blue.  As the book said it is true that opposites attract and I guess we are proof of that.

We're in for it!

Tonight we realized just how hard it will be for Emerson to have a new baby around. Tonight we went to Dan & Linsey's house to make dinner for them because Lins just had a baby on Thursday. I picked up their new baby so Linsey could finish eating. As soon as Emerson saw me holding a baby he started crying so hard and wouldn't stop. He was so upset and looked at me like I had completely betrayed him. He started walking towards the door so I followed him over to try and show him the baby and reason with him a little....not going to happen. He was so upset, Mike tried to pick him up and hold him but he was still not happy. As soon as I gave the baby back he was okay. He was playing with his friend Rayce but everytime I walked in the same room as the baby he would freak out again. I think he was a litte worried that I would pick her up again. I know he will adjust to having a baby in our family but we are in for a wild ride until he does. Good luck to us!

Loving January in Arizona!

The more I am here in Arizona, the more I love it!  I never thought I would be so happy being away from everything I love.  It helps that while Utah is FREEZING cold and snowy, I am taking Emerson to play at the park in 70-80 degree weather.  Most of the time the last few weeks we haven't even needed jackets at all.  There were a couple of days earlier this week we had the air conditioner on, yes in January!!!  Between the weather, the good relationship we have and all the wonderful friends we have met down here, we love it!  It helps to have all of these things being away from our friends and family back home.