season recap...

I'm so sad that the holiday season is over! We had such a fun time this year, but felt it went by way too fast! Here are a few of my favorite memories of this year:

*listening to Christmas music the Thanksgiving Day. Especially the Gipsy Kings Christmas album. Oh and having my ipod hookup in my car so I could listen to my own mix rather then the radios. (there are just too many songs I can't stand on the radio)

*John taking a day off work to put up Christmas lights. Years past its taken him

 weeks trying to do it after work and in the freezing cold.

*John's work Christmas party. Don't know why, but I actually enjoy a 

good work Christmas party.

*Eleanor's Christmas Dress. Loved it!

*Putting Eleanor in her snow suit and letting her play in the snow. She LOVES the cold weather.

*Having my parent's up for the first 

part of the season. 

*Getting a new Hall family photo.

*Going shopping for stocking stuffers wi

th my mom. She always does the BEST stockings. Thanks mom!

*Looking at lights every night. Hearing Eleanor say "Hi lights, Bye lights" and waiving to every house we passed. We did this nearly every night since Thanksgiving. Hearing Eleanor say the same thing to the lights she could see outside our windows.

*Putting Eleanor to bed each night and hearing her tell the Christmas tree, the lights and the little tree in her room "night night".

*Going to the temple lights with John, Eleanor, Sara, Dick, Abby and Rachel. Eleanor ONLY wanted Dick to hold her.

*Getting every one's Christmas cards. I LOVE seeing photos and reading up on everyone. I also enjoy sending out Christmas cards to all our friends and family.

*Christmas Eve at John's parents. Watching the grandkids exchange gifts. Watching Eleanor play with the big kids on the basket ball court. Making the traditional cranber

ry pudding (thanks Elizabeth). Having it snow 10 inches in less then 2 hours! Letting Eleanor open her pjs. Visiting grandma and grandpa Hatch. Looking at the lights at Salem pond.

*Christmas Eve at our house. Putting Eleanor to sleep then turning on a movie (deck the halls, about the lamest movie made) and putting together Eleanor's play kitchen. I think I was more excited for it then Eleanor was! Making sure the house was all clean for Christmas morning. Stuffing John and Eleanor's stockings. Not going to bed until 2am.

*Christmas Day!!!!!! I loved that Eleanor got up at 5am and was in such a happy mood! She played in her crib until John got the video camera ready. We had

 her open her stocking first, which she wasn't really into. She wanted to open all the doors and drawers of her kitchen and figured out how to pull out the sink and use it as a stool. At first she wouldn't open any presents, I think it was from weeks of us telling her NO, but by the end she had it down pretty good. So good, that she thought the box of her crayons was wrapping paper and ripped right through it. She LOVED coloring on her dog coloring book. Watching John open his gifts and being happy with them. Opening my gifts and LOVING them all. Making our traditional Christmas breakfast casserole. Listen to Christmas 

music and just hanging out with John and Eleanor. Talking to my p

arents on the phone. Grandpa and Grandma Martin stopping buy to see what Santa left. Going sledding with the Greenbergs and the Martins. Watching John take the first run and hitting a huge jump and hurting his tale bone. Trying to introduce Eleanor to sledding, she didn't quite like it. Having dinner with just our small family and starting a new Christmas dinner tradition of crab legs and homemade shrimp pesto. 

*Going with the Baldwins to a condo up Ogden canyon. Playing the Wii and eating good food!

*Going to the Apple store with John and buying my new imac!!! 

final assignment...

metaphoric self portrait

update...

for those of you who asked about the update on the car situation, we got a new car. it was not one bit of fun car shopping, in fact i hated it! lucky for us my mom was in town and was able to watch eleanor a few late nights while we shopped around. we decided to go with the '08 honda accord. this is a photo of the car. i'm loving it. it had 2 out of 3 of my "wants", an ipod hook up and tinted windows. today while driving with lori she said she feels like we are grown ups now and that she felt like she was in high school while in the old red car. ha ha...i agree.

a little arizona perfection...

we spent thanksgiving in arizona this year. both john and i agree that the holiday was one of our favorites yet. here is a little recap of our fabulous trip:
tuesday:
john had to work until 1pm so right when he got home i had the car packed, fueled and ready to roll. from door to door we made it in 10 hours even. not bad with a one year old. eleanor did pretty good. she did mange to gag herself causing her to throw up. it was pretty disgusting! we also realized she doesn't sleep much in her new froward facing car seat and wished we could have brought a flashlight so she could have read her books.

wednesday:
we went to lunch with mom and sara at the best little place. i can't remember the name but they serve cornish pasties. yum! thanks sara and mom for the recommendation. john is still talking about it. sara also gave me a 'sara special' haircut. she's the best!! i don't know how she does it, but she can make any one's hair look great! again, thanks sara. elsye and jeff came over that night so we got to see them for a bit. we also went to sara's work and then out to eat at abuelos with dick and sara. this was john's first time there and he loved it. i off course scarfed down the queso and chips. oh and eleanor got to spend a lot of time with mimi and jake. she loves them both soo much!

thursday:
a perfect day. john, jeff, dick and my dad played some frisbee golf while the rest of us helped get things ready for dinner while listening to our frist christmas songs of the year. the dinner was amazing. my dad made the BEST stuffing (my all time favorite thanksgiving dish) and my mom made SIX pies. we had the askins over and it was such a fun day. we also got to go over to ashely and niki's to see their cute family and wish emma a happy birthday.

friday:
john and dick got up at 4 something to hit the big sales, while the rest of us stayed in bed. they got some great stuff at staples such as a couple of external hard drives, jump drives and a few other great deals. then john and i drove out with brad jarves to meet up with andy and elizabeth's family 4wheeling. i hadn't seen brad in years and it was fun catching up with him. we also had fun 4wheeling, shooting guns. andy and elizabeth have quite the collection of toys! thanks for inviting us! for lunch we met up with ahsley, amy, jeff, elyse, sara and dick and tried to eat at lo-lo's (sp?) but it was closed. so we then all went to la grande orange for some great pizza, tuna melts and gelato. it was so much fun. what a great place! theron and amanda game over and we played games. my favorite was ty and eleanor playing together. i can't believe how grown up ty is and how dang cute he is!!

saturday:
we were so glad we were able to be in town for emma's baptism. (read amy's blog). she is so little and so dang cute! i love that little girl! after the baptism we had to hit tc eggingtons for john. every time we are in az he loves going there. dick pulled some sort of magic and was able to get us seated within minutes. what a stud. of course the food was excellent! i tell you, arizona has some pretty dang good restaurants. maybe its a good thing we don't live there...
i can't remember which day sara and dick bought gitar hero, but we had a lot of fun playing it. that game is not easy!! but you should see dick...he's got a little axel in him! and how can forget about the football game, well we would have liked to forget about it. we all wen to theron's to watch the pathetic game. john and i were the only utes fan! what a disappointment! after the game we went and saw dan in real life with my parents. i thought it was funny and john thought the girls were too hard on their dad. i was a little surprised we only made it to one movie. john got to do a little tie and pants shopping with my dad. (john has great taste in ties and got some pretty nice looking ones) we then met up with sara, dick and ashley and his girls at matas. you can't go to az without stopping at matas. eleanor was in awe of the mariachi band and loved the salsa.

sunday:

we were on the road by 5:30 am. my mom drove up with us and entertained eleanor most the trip. i don't think eleanor cried once!! the drive was actually really nice and we didn't hit bad weather or traffic!

i'm sure i've missed a few things, but really we had a great weekend. i'm not sure when or if i'll get photos up...but i'll at least put some on smugmug. now its back to school and cramming for exams!

i never thought it would happen...

wow, i think my little red car is dead, gone, done in!! earlier this week john was driving it and said it was really loud, couldn't go past 40 mph and that something was definitely wrong with it. this morning on the way to the mechanic, it died. its a good thing john made sure i had my cell phone with me just in case this were to happen. when i pulled up to john he pronounced the car dead. he had already started cleaning out the car. i was laughing so hard when i took this photo. don't get me wrong, i was a tad bit sad to see my little old car dead. i've had that car for nearly 10 years. we are still waiting to get a call back from the mechanic to see what the final word is. who knows, maybe we'll be doing a little car shopping down in az!!!!

movie club or i mean book club...

this month we read 'love in the time of cholera'. i kind of cheated this month. i had read the book a few years back and just got too lazy to re-read it. but i think i'm going to give it another try. i remember really enjoying it the first time i read it. for our meeting this month we met up for ice cream at thanksgiving point and then head out to the theater to watch the movie. a lot of people couldn't make it and we missed them, but those that were there had a good time (well at least i did). only crystal, elicia and i went to the movie. i'm SO glad we decided to go, it was such an amazing film!!!! i wish all the books we read had great movies like this one. next month we are reading 'the giver'.

assignment 3...

this assignment we had to do a photo-narative using 6 images. the orignial size is 5x26 and its horizontal rather than verticle (it would not fit on the blog horizontal)

christmas flick list...

nothing puts me into the holiday spirit more then movies. this year john and i have decided to have a holiday movie marathon. here is what we have to look forward too:

the family stone
the holiday
love actually
while you were sleeping
home alone 1
white christmas
serendipity
national lampoon's christmas vacation
the family man
a charlie brown christmas
it's a wonderful life
miracle on 43th street (1947)
elf

can't wait to get started...

photobooth blog

http:martinphotobooth.blogspot.com

halloween...

halloween 2007 was a great sucess. we had a good time dressing up, going to john's work and passing out candy. eleanor enjoyed walking up and down our street. she made sure to wave and say hi to every trick-or-treator. she also ate more then enought candy...no wonder she woke up at 2am with a tummy ache.

john-the mountain man

i've got to give a little shout-out to john. this year he went with his brother and his family on the deer hunt. last week for four days they woke up at 5:00 am (and he wonders why i didn't go with them) and headed up to either spanish fork canyon or near strawberry. on the 3rd trip out john shot his very 1st deer. neither of us enjoy (i've actually never tried it...but i know i'd hate it) deer meet so we figured we just make nothing but jerky. now the question is...who wants jerky.


*note to readers. i know this picture is very disturbing with the deer looking right at you. trust me, it was really creepy taking this photo. i wish they'd closed the poor things eyes. and no, i did not let eleanor see this. i'm afraid she would have permanent damage. the poor girl freaked out when her pinata got smashed.

why i'm not at church...

saturday, october 27, 2007
6:15- eleanor wakes up
6:20- eleanor will not go back to sleep. i get out of bed and start cleaning the house.
7:30- house is clean. eleanor gets a bath.
8:10- remember i need a babysitter for this morning.
8:11- call miaka and schedule to pick her up at 10:30
9:30- john gets out of bed.(he needed the extra sleep. he was up until 2:30...long story)
10:00- shower and get ready.
10:30- pick up miaka and drop things off at lori's
10:45- leave the house and head for american fork
10:55- arrive to funeral
1o:56- cry
11:10- cry
12:10- still crying
12:15- leave funeral a tad early
12:30- get home. dress eleanor, gather a few things
12:45- take miaka home and head off for elk ridge
1:25- arrive at john's parents house.
1:50- lilly gets blessed
1:55- leave elk ridge
2:35- arrive to evan's party
2:36- start taking photos
2:45- telling kids to say cheese
3:10- shoving food into my mouth (first time that day)
3:35- still saying cheese
3:50- sneak out of the party
3:55- rest
3:56- done resting. gather up costumes
4:30- leave for walmart to pick up last minute costume items: john's velvet pants and extra dark makeup
5:30- leave malmart (insert comment on how much i HATE walmart)
5:32- eleanor learns to say trick-or-treat
5:34- eleanor says trick-or-treat
5:37- still saying trick-or-treat
5:42- wondering why we taught her trick-or-treat
5:45- experience deja vu (leave for elk ridge)
6:15- arrive to elk ridge, again deja vu
6:16- put on eleanor's costume. eleanor plays with cousins
6:25- john and i transform into siegfried and roy
6:26- take two photos and camera batteries die
6:35- leave for steve's party
6:37- arrive to party.
6:40- eat
6:45- pull out 3 WRAPPED candies out of eleanor's mouth.
6:46- still pulling out candy
7:00- watch a little guitar hero
7:01- wish i played guitar or STILL had one
7:10- watch eleanor dance to the music
7:11- wondered where eleanor learned her skills
7:45- leave elk ridge
7:46- eleanor takes her first nap for the day
7:50 -deja vu again
8:30-arrive to lyndsay and matt's party and wake eleanor up
8:31- wondering why we didn't go with a "prettier" costume theme
8:45- enjoy seeing all the creative costumes
8:55- eat
9:00- enjoying the party
9:10- eating
9:11- eleanor starts acting up
9:12- realize how good eleanors done ALL day.
9:20- matt takes a few photos for us
9:35- almost asleep
9:36- fighting our tired eyes
9:37- realize we need to get home
9:37- home!!!!!
9:38- eleanor and john dead a sleep.

siegfried, roy & harriet

and its over...

i can't tell you how happy i am that today is thursday and this week is finally to an end (my school week that is). monday night i realized that i had a four page paper for my history of photography class due on wednesday. i had not done ANY of the 200+ pages of reading for it or given it any thought. i then thought i should check out my online writing class and see what was due. come to find out i had a big assignment due on friday, of course i totally spaced this assignment as well. i also had a big assignment due in my digital imaging class AND a midterm for my gender studies. then on top of it all, i got a call from my counselor saying she HAD to meet with me on thursday to talk about graduation. let's just say i was a little stressed this week. thanks to some good friends (tiff for helping me cheat with my writing class and lori & crystal for watching eleanor).

i left my midterm feeling pretty good. my teacher is a complete nut and her test was wild. my appointment with my counselor was good. just 4 more classes needed to graduate. (but i think i'll end up taking at least 2-3 others just for fun). i was also able to pick up my prints and get them mounted just in time for class. i have such a love/hate relationship for critiques. i get to antsy when people go on and on and on about some absurd point. oh and come on, just because you are in the art department does not mean you need to dye your hair blue and walk around campus with no shoes.

so yeah, i'm glad this week is over. we are having a few friends over for dinner this weekend, attending evan's birthday party and just relaxing for the remainder.

assignment two

for my digital imaging class i had a series of four 8X20 montages. i'm thrilled with the outcome!

october in a flash part II

bull riding night:

john's brother got us all tickets to a professional bull riding contest. i wasn't too thrilled about going, but i must admit i wasn't ready to leave when we did. the entire night cracked me up. i loved watching how into it the fans were and all the sound/fire effects were great. i really felt like a redneck!!

{i love ella's cowgirl atire}

{the whole gang}

american fork v. lone peak:

our nephew mike invited us to the american fork v lone peak football game. john went to american fork and hadn't been to a football since. it was actually really fun! it got pretty chilly so we left at halftime. john was glad to hear af killed lone peak. sorry mike.

{a girl after my own heart...cheetos lover}

{go cavemen}

grandpa & grandma hatch birthday/anniversary party:
john and eleanor got to go to grandpa and grandma hatch's anniversary and birthday party. john's grandparents are so cute and nice! i had class and was so do miss the party. eleanor loved playing with all her cousins. i think there were 8 great grand"girls" born last year.

{grandpa & grandma hatch and grandma martin}

zoo with cousins:
during uea we went up to the zoo. we knew it would be pretty crowed so we got there right when it opened in hopes of beating the crowd. it was such a perfect day. there was no one there and the animals were so active. also, the weather and leaves were beautiful! we all had such a good time and are hoping to get one more visit before its too cold.

{zack and the white alligator or crocodile... not sure which}

{ella and dad checking out the bears}

{just before she ripped it to shreds}

{1.2.3...her new favorite thing}

october in a flash...

this month has been such a fun and packed month for us. since i've been in school i haven't had much time to keep my blog up-to-date. i'm always thinking of things i need to add on my blog...but just can't find the time. right now eleanor and john are taking a sunday afternoon nap and i'm sacrificing mine so i can cross this off my to do list this week. here are the cliff notes for october so far...

st. george and oliver paey's blessing:

the first of the month we took a little weekend trip to st. george and cedar city. john's high school bud was blessing his little boy and we thought it would be fun to spend a night in st. george and watch 42nd street at tuacahn. the musical was really good...but it was FREEZING cold. we also got to do a little swimming and just hanging out in the hotel. we got to meet little oliver (i'm still going to name my first son oliver) and he is really cute. its always nice catching up with old friends.{tyring to get the red rock in our self-portrait}

{nothing new...ella loving the swing}

bear lake get away:
you've got to love fall break! this was my first time in my 6 years of college to get a full week off for fall break. we had plans to go down to az (was even going to take john to st. johns for the first time and go to my 10 year class reunion) but we ended up having too much going on and decided to stay home. john actually surprised me on sunday morning telling me i needed to get packing for our little 3 day getaway. he wouldn't tell me where we were going, just somewhere close and cold. thanks to lori's smarts, i found out we were going to bear lake. i was so excited. i've been wanting to go up there for quite some time. the ride up was beautiful. the fall leaves were in full color and it was our first time to drive up logan canyon in the fall. we won't miss it next year!! the condo we stayed out was great! i was surprised at how big and nice it was. we had such a fun little vaction. we were surprised to find only 2 restaurants opened and only one gas station. we did a lot of driving and even ventured up to montpelier idaho. i was excited to finally go there. if you play ticket to ride you become quite familiar with this little city...and i mean LITTLE! again, we had such a good time. thanks john for the surprise! oh and how could i forget. eleanor decided she wanted to start walking! she took off with about 20 steps. by the end of the trip she was walking all over the place. way to go!!! we also stopped at a great pumpkin patch in logan and got a car FULL of pumpkins.

{one of the two restaurants. a pizza joint}

{no, the mery-go-round was not even plugged in}

{john's first visit to paris...he wishes france}

{eleanor's first steps. encouraged by the phone charger}

{a recommendation from my parents... a+}

{pumpkin patch logan, ut}

{ella stirring}

part I of our october break

eleanor's invites...{for mindy}

{front}

{back}

{inside}

i pledge...to npr

yesterday on my way home from school i was listening to npr. its that time of year again, the fall fund drive is here. i kind of hate this week on npr and get a little annoyed with all the goal talk during each program. right when i starting to get annoyed and about to switch from radio to cd, i heard a name of friend (well a friend of john's) come across the radio. justin hasckell from elk ridge, ut. they said he just became a member and thanked him for his contribution. thanks justin...you inspired me. i'm making my pledge tonight.

eleanor's very first birthday party...aka fiesta