Happy 4th Birthday, Hals!

Warning: Long post with lots of pictures ahead!

It is just insane to me that this stinkin' adorable baby:

is now FOUR! (Man, that's some nostalgia looking at those pictures. Who knew that Devin used to be such a baby? And Hallie was such a darling newborn. Awwww...so cute.) 

It is custom in our family to drag out our celebrations for as long as possible. So, Hallie's party started yesterday and continued through today. Yesterday, we headed up to Logan for Ryen's baptism. Of course I don't have any pictures of her or any of the baptismal festivities, but I did get one (sort of) of Charlie girl. She is about as adorable as they come and continues to amaze. She is walking, starting to talk, etc. just as she should for a little one her age. She's a miracle. And look how cute: 

Ok, that's not the best picture ever, but oh well.

After the baptism, we hung out at Brad's for a while and then decided to go bowling as a family to burn some time before we had our birthday dinner. This is a busy time for birthdays on my mom's side of the family as it was Landon's birthday yesterday, Hallie's today, my mom's tomorrow, and my Grandma's on Tuesday. So, we thought we ought to celebrate while we were all together.

These two are just best friends and oh so funny together...

Bowling= chaos. I have a few videos of Jace dancing to the awesome bowling alley music, but I'll have to upload them later. He was super funny...let's just say he has NO rhythm whatsoever.  

One lane was dedicated to just the children, which was certainly interesting. Jack and Hals had a good time together though. 

After bowling, it was time to go to dinner. We went to a fancy restaurant in Logan, Elements (which I highly recommend), because Jennifer's brother-in-law is an owner/chef there. He hooked us up and gave us our own conference room so that the kids could run wild and not disturb anyone. They also allowed us to bring our own cake, which they cut, plated, and served to us. So nice. I don't have a whole lot of pictures because Carlie was the main photographer, but here are a few:

Hallie opening some presents. This silver dress was a huge hit (from my mom)

The girls hauling one of Grandma's presents to her. Sorry it's blurry, but it was still cute.

Because my mom is turning 50 (50! Can you believe that!), my siblings and I got her 5 gifts- one for every decade of life. It was fun to celebrate her birthday as well as Landon's at the same time. Sorry there are no pictures of Landon and his gifts, I did take a few but they are all terribly blurry. Obviously my photography skills are lacking. We are celebrating my Grandma's birthday later (on the 17th) as we have an early Thanksgiving planned and a special gift coming for her. More on that later.

Super nice that the kids could just run wild as we were in our own enclosed space. 

The aftermath from the cake-- and that was just from Jace!

He clearly enjoyed it...

The festivities continued today with church, Hallie's favorite dinner, more cake, and more presents.

Hallie woke up to a big bouquet of flowers from her daddy. She was obviously thrilled.

She looked beautiful in her new dress. She was excited that she got to go to church on her birthday.  I should take a hint from her as I typically don't love Sunday birthdays...

After church, she was eager to change into her second dress from Grandma, the one she designated as a "play dress". 

resting on the couch with her new doll from Grandma Donna. Isn't that the cutest thing?

She had some visitors too! Our sweet neighbor girls, Ann, McKinley (Hallie calls her Pippin), and Ashley brought her a Webkinz stuffed animal. We spent part of the afternoon playing on the Webkinz website trying to figure it out. 

Loving her doll from Grandma

This is one of Hallie's sunbeam teachers at church, Sister Roberts. Sister Slade, her other teacher, send Hallie a card in the mail that was super sweet. Sister Roberts brought her a book and a little stuffed animal. She is lucky to have such caring and sweet teachers.

Every time I asked Hallie leading up to her birthday what she wanted for her birthday dinner, she told me nachos. Sigh. Why must I have a kid so obsessed with nachos? It's not that we eat nachos all that often, but she just seriously loves them. So, we figured, "why not?". I went a little fancier than normal though and made homemade chips from corn tortillas (seriously so good) and got a huge variety of toppings. Hallie, however insisted on just her plain chips and cheese. Whatever, girl. Mine were exceptionally delicious though, between the homemade chips, the piles of toppings, and having fasted all day, well- let's just say that those nachos hit the spot. Not too bad Hals, not too bad.

 After dinner came present and cake time!

Lucky and spoiled girl!

Hals wanted strawberry shortcake for her cake, which was also quite yummy. 

Blowing out the candles

Yet another dress....can you tell what the way to this girl's heart is??

She got this learning laptop from Grandpa/ma Strobel and was thrilled. Probably her favorite gift.

Sorry for the unflattering picture, but just had to add it to show what poor Flor has to go through sometimes. While we were all enjoying our strawberry shortcake, she got to munch on a roll. Oh the life of a non-sugar eater...

Happy birthday sweet girl! We love you so much!!

I guess I should add a few things about Hallie at age four. I did her birthday interview, which I will add into a separate post, but here are some of mine and Devin's observations.

*Hallie is really tall for her age. I don't have her exact height and weight, but she is taller than all of her friends who are the same age and towers over some. That is to be expected I guess, given that Devin is so tall.

*Hallie is super social most of the time, however she can be shy sometimes when she gets around people that she doesn't know. She tends to be a leader amongst her friends, coming up with what to do and bossing everyone else around.

*Hals is involved in a lot of activities- she does computer classes MWF, dance Wednesdays, and preschool on Thursdays. She plays almost every day (sometimes more than once per day) with our neighbor girls, Hannah and Abby. She almost always asks if she can play with Hannah and Abby first thing when she wakes up.

*Hallie is a really smart girl. She picks up on things easily and always surprises me with what she has learned. The other day, for example, she came up to me and said, "mom, did you know that our bodies have to have water to live?" What the heck? I don't know where she gets this stuff. She can write her first, middle, and last names and we practice writing individual letters from time to time. She is pretty good at most, but some still need a little help. :) We are working on sounding out letters, but I think she is a ways off from reading. She has an insane memory and remembers all sorts of things. For example, once I spelled Flor, Jace, mom, and dad for her and it only took once before she remembered how to spell them all-- she can still spell them all and this was several months ago. She memorized articles of faith 1-4 before we lost steam and haven't helped her memorize the others. She still remembers one through four, though we don't practice them often anymore.

*Favorites: the color purple, princesses, movies, anything Disney, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, playing with friends, nachos, sprite, vegetables of all kinds (she will still just get them out of the fridge and snack on them),  treats of all kinds, Tangled, playing outside, riding her bike, coloring, doing puzzles, going to church, singing songs. I am sure there are many more.

*Hals is a great big sister to Flor and Jace. Even though Flor is older, Hallie will probably always play that role for her. She is generally really sweet with both kids and each loves her in turn. In fact, Jace wakes up every morning saying, "Hallie? Hals? Where Hals?" Hals is great to help me hold Flor's hand when we go to stores or other places if I am holding on to Jace and can't. She is a great protector of both. I am sure Heavenly Father knew what he was doing when he sent Hallie to us first. She has the perfect older sibling personality and is truly such a big help to us.

Alright, that's probably enough for now!

We sure love our big 4 year old!