First Piano Recital

She's a natural!

Untitled from Tara Banks on Vimeo.

Halle’s Birthday in the Big Apple

   Little Miss Halle was lucky enough to get to spend her 8th birthday in New York City!  Rusty was speaking at the AdTech conference, which happened to fall right on Halle’s birthday, so we decided to tag along with him.  The boys stayed with Susan.  We arrived in NYC at about 10:30pm, and immediately went to check out the hustle and bustle of Times Square.  Halle could not believe all the lights!

The next morning was her birthday.  Rusty had to go to his conference, but before he left we told he we had a big birthday surprise for her, but she needed to wait just a little while longer.  Halle and I ate birthday breakfast at McDonald’s, and then hopped on the subway.  I didn’t tell her where we were going until it was staring us in the face.  The American Girl store!  The look on her face was priceless, and it got even better when I told her she could pick any doll she wanted for her birthday.  This place is HUGE—three stories of dolls, dolls, and more dolls.  She’s had her eye on Julie for awhile now, and she chose her.  We got her ears pierced, got her a pet, Pepper the dog, and lots of fun accessories!  We could have spent the whole day!  It is an experience I will never forget—spoiling my baby girl in NYC

Next it was off the Central Park to ride the Carousel.  It was a sunny 65 degrees, just perfect to spend some time by the little lake, and enjoy the beautiful fall leaves.  We also ate Halle’s favorite, cheeseburgers, at the Shake Shack.

  Next up was Ice Skating at the Rockefeller Center.  It’s a toss up between this and the Statue of Liberty for things Halle was most excited about in NYC.  Daddy was able to join us for this, and so Daddy and Halle skated while Mommy snapped pictures.  Halle really started to get the hang of it by the end.
In keeping with our non-stop day, we ate dinner at a Halal cart on the street (Rusty loves this, Halle and I not so much) and then headed straight to the New Amsterdam Theater to see Mary Poppins.  What a fun show!  It wasn’t my favorite Broadway by a long shot, but it was just perfect for Miss Halle.  She was mesmerized, and especially love the part where Mary “flies” with her umbrella.

 

What Birthday would be complete without some sort of cake?  Halle chose cheesecake.  We had seen this place in Times Square promising “World Famous” cheesecake.  I don’t know about world famous, but we had fun singing to our birthday princess in our little corner booth.

By this time we were all exhausted so we went back to our hotel to crash.  All Halle’s “friends” were waiting for us :)

(Jackson had been waiting by the window for us all day long)

The next day Halle and I grabbed a yummy breakfast and then headed to the Empire State Building.  It was a foggy morning, so the view wasn’t the very best, but it was still pretty darn awesome.  Halle couldn’t believe how high up we were!

(Have I mentioned the other friend who came with us?  Halle had her class monkey, Curious George, for the week.  So he tagged along on our vacation.  He got to meet King Kong at Empire State.)

Then it was off to the much anticipated Statue of Liberty!  We took the Ferry out to Liberty Island and gazed at that beautiful lady. Halle loved it!  Rusty took the Ferry out with us, but then had to rush back to make his last meeting of the day.   

We were able to do so many fun things, and see so many famous sites.  But do you wanna know what stole Halle’s heart in NYC?  Her very favorite thing?? 
  
All the PIGEONS!!!

Halle’s Baptism photo shoot

Halle is getting baptized on Nov 26th!  We went up to Longmont and had a fun photo shoot with her in her beautiful white dress.  Love you Halle!

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An Angry “Bird-day”

Our sweet Josh is now 5!  We had a fantastic birthday weekend filled with Cars 2, and Angry Birds. Before we get to all the partying, here is Josh’s 5th birthday interview:
It all started on his birthday with presents and a special birthday breakfast of waffles with powdered sugar, bacon, and orange juice:


We got to celebrate again that evening with a family dinner at Chuck. E. Cheese.  Everyone had a great time eating pizza and playing games. We came home and had peanut butter cookies, Josh’s favorite.
The festivities continued at Josh’s Angry Bird Party on Saturday.  We tried to recreate the iphone game with our very own version of “kill the pigs.” The boys loved it and would have played it all day, but Rusty got tired of building towers.

  

Next we did Angry Bird Tattoos, and made our very own angry bird balloons.

 Then it was on to everybody’s favorite, cupcakes and presents!    

 

Halloween Mayhem

Between planning Halloween playdates (Josh did one with his friends too, but I didn’t take any pictures)

 

Attending the ward Fall Festival and Trunk-or-treat, and going to 2 school parties

 

I was too tired to take pics when the “real” Halloween came. I got 4.  Here they are.  :)