As promised...

...Hallie and Mr. Lincoln. It's not as great of a picture as I thought, but still you get the idea. She wasn't exactly happy. She started out on his lap, then I sat down with her. I think this guy has got to be related to the President Lincoln somewhere. Cause I think he looks a lot like him.

Here are some more of our 4th of July activities...

Hallie with a historic American flag

Chalk drawing of Benjamin Franklin Various flags

Nothing more American :)

Who needs fireworks when you have glow sticks!

Whitney jump roping her glow sticks

Backtracking

For our anniversary, in May, I surprised Eric with a Digital SLR camera. We FINALLY bought a card reader so that we don't have to go to Costco to see our pictures from this camera. So 637 pictures, and 2 hours later, they are all in the computer. I'm going to backtrack a bit here and there, because there are some really fun pictures. Hope you enjoy them, as I get to them.

Scottish Days

7.11.09

After going to lunch one day we decided to go into the pet shop next door to show Hallie the different animals, while we were there we ran into a lovely Scottish woman who loved Hallie's hair. After talking to her for awhile, and her telling us we both must have Viking blood, she told us we should head to Payson the next day for the Scottish Festival. Eric loves his Scottish ancestry, and is obsessed with bagpipes, so we figured why not.

So the next morning we headed to Payson. Unfortunately our camera died part way through. So here are a few pictures we do have.

Eric & Hallie with one of the pipe bands that were competing

The Highland Games were pretty cool to watch too. I didn't realize people actually still did this. I mean it makes sense, for some reason I figured they just disappeared or something. :)

The caber toss.
Basically they try to flip that long pole over its end.

And some pitchfork thing, that we don't know what it is called.
They stick the pitchfork into a bag filled with straw, then they try to fling it over the crossbar.
We had a good time for sure. We walked around and saw all the Utah Scottish Clan chapters, smelled the food, drank home brewed root beer in a bottle with a cork, and wandered the booths selling their Scottish fare. Eric has decided that this will now be a yearly tradition. :)

The King of Country Music

7.17.09

Yes, it's true, I'm spoiled and we got to go to see this guy sing live in concert! George Strait has been one of my favorites since I was little, and I've always wanted to see him perform live. So Eric humored me and bought us tickets to go. And let me tell you he isn't too into the smoke, and the stage, and the lights, but man can he sing. If you have ever heard recording of George Strait, he sounds exactly the same in concert! We were both very impressed. It was very well worth the drive, and sitting in traffic forever. (it took us 3 hours to drive to the concert, which should normally only take about an hour.)

Because we were stuck in traffic we missed one of the opening acts, Julianne Hough. But we got there in time to see most of Blake Shelton. Eric got to hear him perform his two favorites of his, Austin, and Some Beach. Eric also has a new Blake Shelton favorite, Old Red.

Blake Shelton

(we aren't sure why he was dressed like he was cold or something, it was over 90 degrees outside, and he had a long sleeved shirt on.)

Just us
And here he is, the King of Country Music himself
This was a view from our seats We were amazed, he just sang and sang and sang. No chit chat, or much talking, he just sang song after song. But when you have that many hits, I guess you better fit as many in as possible. Cause there is no way he could even come close to performing all of his well known songs. Us with George, can you see him in the background? We had a great time, and I was thrilled we were able to go. He definitely put on a good show.

Thank you Mom & Dad for taking Hallie, so we could go.

This is how our camping trip went...

...ALL NIGHT LONG!!!

We came home 12 hours after we left.

One more Month...

...and Hallie will be one year old!

Can you believe she is 11 months old today?! I sure can't! In honor of the grand event Mom & Dad are celebrating by going to the George Strait concert, and Hallie is celebrating by playing at Grandma & Grandpa's. :)

Here is what Hallie has been up too.

Hallie...

-is pulling up on everything
-getting into everything
-jabbers a lot, and can say a few words
-has 4 teeth, and the others still coming
-isn't too interested in walking, which is fine by me :)
-loves to sing, and music in general
-has the cutest little giggle, both her fake and real one
-kicks her feet up anywhere she is sitting
-is very curious about everything
-loves sweets, and tested out her birthday cake
-is figuring out how to dance, so cute!
-doesn't like having her hair done, and tries to pull her pigtails out
-likes to throw things, and has quite the arm
-is very expressive in her emotions
-is very silly and makes us laugh everyday
-is growing up way to fast!

Just Keep Swimming...

...just keep swimming, just keep swimming, swimming, swimming! Hallie and I just finished up a parents & tots swimming class with some of our friends. We know that Hallie loves the water, but she is becoming quite the little fish. She learned how to get in the pool, kick her legs, hold onto the wall, pass between two people, blow bubbles, go under the water and hold her breath, float on her back (which she does not particularly care for), and today we even went down the water slide.

Us on the first day

In the water
Sadie Miner, Jonathan Morgan, & Hallie Patterson

It was a fun couple of weeks for sure! Thanks for playing Sadie & Jonathan! (and Kara & Mary Anne too!)

Sweet Tooth

The last few days we have discovered this little monkey's love for sweets! Today I pulled a gummy bear out of her mouth. After which she promptly showed me where she found them, in the bottom of one of my bags that has been sitting on the floor. :) When I told Eric, he said that she had done the same thing a day or two before, but he didn't know where she found them. But she led me to her stash and we took care of them. :) Who knows how long they had been in there though, it's kinda gross to think about!

Then tonight, while she was playing at my parents, she found a Jelly Belly on the office floor and decided that was quite tasty. When Grandpa took it out of her mouth, she was not at all happy about it! I guess she cried and cried and cried!

But, it may have all started Saturday when we did a test run of her birthday cake. We thought we'd try it, and make sure she did okay with it. Because we'd hate for her to be sick and miserable on her birthday! Surprise, surprise! She LOVED it! More importantly though, it didn't make her sick. :) We were lucky enough to find an allergy-free, and gluten-free chocolate cake mix! It definitely tastes different, but not bad by any means. What a funny little girl! She definitely keeps us all laughing, and on our toes!

First Words

Hallie has become quite the little chatterbox. (but like my mom said, that's a good thing because you always know where she is) But we think it'd be safe to say that "duck" is her first official word. It's the first word she can recognize what it is, and then tell me what it is called. It's really cute. It's kinda more like "duh," but sometimes she does get the "-ck" on there. She also says "whoa," a lot, and "no," and occasionally "hello." Now, I know a part of this is because I know what she is saying, and someone on the street probably wouldn't pick up what she is trying to say. But hey, it still counts right? :) She is getting way to grown up!

Baby M&M

7.12.2009

Chad and Angela brought Hallie this onesie from M&M World in Las Vegas, and I just loved to put her in it! Isn't she the cutest? Thanks Chad and La La.

Happy 4th of July

This year for the 4th, we were kind of lazy. We didn't plan too much, and just relaxed most the day. We did go to Colonial Days, which is a part of Provo's big Freedom Days Festival. They recreate the colonial American times, it is really neat. Hallie even got to sit on President Lincoln's lap. She most definitely did NOT enjoy it though, she screamed and screamed! It must have been the beard. We actually have a picture of it, but it is on our other camera, but when I get the pictures off we will most definitely be posting it.

After that, we just hung out at the park with Chad and Angela. The boys played horseshoes, and broke 2 more of our horseshoes. How that is possible is beyond me. Then we went back up to my parents for dinner, volleyball, playing outside, relaxing, fireworks, and playing with glow sticks! Luckily my parent have great neighbors who let us come sit in their back yard to watch the big firework show from the Stadium of Fire, from the edge of the hill. What more do you need out of the 4th of July? Hallie stayed up the WHOLE time, and was SO good. She was such a trooper, and had a lot of fun.

Also, yesterday at church, we sang the National Anthem, and everyone stood to sing it. It started with a couple people and just spread. I don't know why that stood out to me so much, but it was really neat to see the patriotism, and remember those who have fought for our freedoms. It was just really neat, the feeling of the room totally changed.

Playing at the park

Whitney Audrey Making fun creations out of glow sticks. These girls are creative! I was very impressed. Watching the neighbors fireworks. Most of the crew

Hallie and her glow sticks

She thought they were pretty great

Our family 4th of July picture

Angela & Chad...thanks for playing with us! We love you guys!

I also realized that this was Hallie's last, FIRST, holiday...or major holiday at least. I told Eric that and he reminded me that there is still Utah's state holiday, Pioneer Day. But it is her last national holiday. In fact, she will turn one six weeks from today! How crazy is that?!

Anyway, we hope you all had a great 4th of July.

(more pictures to come)

Our Big Girl

Last Tuesday, after much research and deliberation, we went and bought Hallie a new car seat. We knew she was getting pretty close to outgrowing her infant seat. We weighed her at BYU, and she was 22.3 pounds, and her infant seat is rated up to 22 pounds. (Not that, that was the determining factor) But, we decided this is what we wanted, saw that it was on sale, and we had an extra 15% off coupon, but it expired the next day. Luckily we had been putting money aside until we knew what we wanted, so we were able to take advantage of this deal. So we went and bought it, we have really liked it, and we love a lot of the features on it.
She is just getting way too big! I can't believe it! Hallie loves being able to see out the window, and it is much softer than her other car seat. It is pretty much a baby recliner. :) But that does mean that it gets hotter, she is pretty much always sweaty when we get her out of it, so we need to work on that. Other than that it has been great!

Just 'cause

6.21.09

Quack, Quack

This is us feeding the ducks at the BYU Botany pond. Hallie thought it was pretty fun, but didn't quite grasp the concept of throwing the bread. :) There were A TON of baby ducks swimming around too, so that was fun.

Utah Lake

6.24.09

One of our favorite things to do as a family is go out on the boat. Eric and I didn't get to go last year at all, so we were excited to be able to go.

Putting everyone's feet in the water to cool off

Eric on the tube

Hallie and I in the water

Lizzie

Lizzie and Kelsie

Emi

Rob skiing

Headed home

It was a very enjoyable trip to the lake! Thanks Dad for taking us! And thank you Hall family for letting us enjoy part of your vacation with you. :)