Merry Christmas!!

Hi everyone - sorry it's been so long since we checked in. We've been out of town and getting over illness. We wish you all a very Merry Christmas. Here are a couple of cute shots of Kinsey in her Christmas apparel :).

-D, D, K & baby

A lot of pics - Thanksgiving and some other stuff

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I know it's been a long time since you heard from us - this is me with the whole Hallam fam at Brian and Crystal's house in Conroe.

But, before we talk about Thanksgiving, we need to go back in time a bit. While I was in Conroe, Mommy got the pics from CC of when she and Crystal and Hailey were here to visit while Mommy and Daddy were in Dallas. Apparently we did a lot of driving :-). We went to the outlet mall and they have all kinds of cars for us kids to drive. And even some horses for us to ride. So as you can see, Hailey and I had a lot of fun together. And then I got to see her again and hang out at her house for Turkey Day. Here's me and Hailey with Obi...Obi is lots of fun. He took me and Hailey to go see the ducks. We fed them some bread and talked to them for a while. Then we walked over to the gazebo......and watched the storm come in. We played with Aunt Crystal a bit.Then we went back home and decided to help Daddy and CC in the kitchen. And then we just kind of hung out and played for a while. Hailey's piano was the so much fun! We learned a lot about "sharing" with that toy :-). So then Obi found a piano big enough for both of us to play at the same time!Hailey also has a cool zebra that I got to ride. Then Obi invented the coolest game I've ever played. It was called "bounce on the blow-up bed" and I could've played all day long! We ate some really yummy turkey and Daddy's world-famous dressing. My favorite was the cranberries. After we were all full, everyone played music and sang some songs. Mommy has a video somewhere, I'm sure she'll post it in a few days. Wednesday night a big storm blew in and it got really cold. Thursday morning was the real Thanksgiving day, and we celebrated by going for a walk. Everyone sure takes a lot of pictures of me and Hailey together. I guess we don't mind too much, even when they put us in goofy places. You can't see Obi, but he's crouched down behind us holding our bottoms in place so we don't fall off.Oh, there he is...
It was pretty cold outside, but we were bundled up.

Obi found a great big bunch of grass for us to play on. We came back home and of course played some more. Here's me in Uncle Brian's hat.Ok, so here are a couple more family shots. Pay close attention to the second one. Did you notice? Uncle Robert is making a seriously creepy face. We must've taken like 20 pictures and a bunch of them had a crazy face like that. Between Brian and Robert, there were quite a few really weird ones. So Mommy cropped one of them to show a good pic of Brian, Crystal, and Hailey.
It was really fun to hang out with the family for a couple of days. When we came back home, it was still cold, which Daddy says is AWESOME for Starbucks, so it was great weather to put up the Christmas tree. Mommy put on some really fun Christmas music and I started dancing! We are still decorating it, so I don't have any final pictures yet. So here are the usual pictures of me in cute clothes...

And here's two shots of me doing one of my favorite things. SHOPPING!!! I get either a purse or a basket and I say "Bye y'all!" and Mommy and Daddy ask where I'm going and I tell them either "Shopping Wal-Mart" or "Shopping HEB". So after we put up the tree, Daddy's back was sore, and a few weeks ago, our friend Jeremiah, the chiropractor, fixed Daddy's back. That has really stuck with me and I like to bring it up at random times. Anyway, Daddy said his back hurt so I said I'd fix it like Jeremiah does. So here's me, future chiropractor, at work...And then I laid down so Daddy could fix my back. Tonight I worked on my other future career. CHEF! Daddy was making guacamole and I got to help!!

Daddy said an important part of being a chef is tasting what you make. I thought the guacamole was yummy!
Oh hey, here's a cute pic of my cousin Hailey from Halloween. Ok, to close it out, Mommy wants to share some Kinsey-isms...

Hi all, Darin here. Kinsey has been talking up a storm lately. I mean it's pretty much a neverending stream of words and she learns new words and phrases every day. So here are a few funny ones from the last week or so:

At Brian and Crystal's, I asked her if she was ready for naptime. She responded "Not Yet!"

I showed her some new footy pajamas with a kitty cat on them and she grabbed them from me and said "SO cute!!!!"

She was cutting up and I was laughing at her and she said "Silly girl!"

Yesterday she fell down and said "Ouch!" So I asked her if she was okay and she didn't respond so I told her that when she hurts herself she should tell us that she's ok. So like 2 minutes later she sat down hard on the floor and yells out "I'm okay Mommy! I'm okay!"

And why is it that everything is at MAX volume? Sometimes she'll say "Kinsey LOUD?" and I just smile and say yes sweetie. And then she'll try to whisper, which is hilarious. She calls it "shipper" instead of whisper. And it's still pretty loud.

And a few things she's learning at church:

Two weeks ago they taught her "Moses said Let my people go! Pharoah said No, No, NO!" And "God made me". There are some folks who come into the kids' classrooms during Sunday School and do music with them. I like to spy on her through the windows and she loves the music time. They give her shakers and she shakes it and smiles. So at dinner tonight out of the blue, she sings "Joy, joy joy in my heart". She really cracks us up.