Grateful for LITTLE things!!!

We are moved into the house in Middleton, yet we have no stove...but that's not stopping me from cooking a home cooked meal for my family.
I am so grateful for small appliances...especially my rice cooker and my Foreman grill. The other day, I was thinking to myself... "I need a stove so I can cook dinner..." Then I thought again "wait a second, I have a griddle, I have a rice cooker and I have a foreman grill and a bbq grill" What wonderful inventions these have been :)

Just a little food for thought... it's not the BIG things that make life sweet, it's the little things and mean A LOT!!!! We did truly enjoy our homecooked meal tonight... after a week of micorwaved meals or quick fix dinners.

My favorite place in the house

I have found that my favorite place in the house is on my knees. Anywhere that I'm on my knees and speaking directly to my Father in Heaven is my favorite place to be.

Over the span of my life, I have always found great comfort and peace in prayer. I know this is a blessing and am so very grateful for this blessing. I'm grateful for the personal relationship that I have with my Heavenly Father. I have always felt very close to my Father in Heaven and have had some very special experiences... which I'm not going to speak of here..this isn't the place.

For the past few weeks, I've felt an even closer connection with Him when I kneel to pray and throughout the day as I'm going about my work.

I don't know why I'm writing this here and at this time of night, but I felt impressed to do so. I feel that I need to share.

I love my Heavenly Father. I know that He has blessed me from the beginning with a keen sense of knowing exactly who I am and where I came from. He has been my closest friend along with my Savior Jesus Christ. I know that I have been blessed with miracles beyond my comprehension many times. I know that there is a specific plan for me here on this earth. I feel and know that Heavenly Father has placed specific people in my life at certain times to bless me and for me to bless them. His plan is perfect and we are all part of it. I know that Heavenly Father has blessed me with a big heart capable of loving all unconditionally, yet capable of being hurt and feeling indescribable pain and anguish for my own sins and for others as well. I love with all my heart and soul... there is always room in my heart for more people to love... it's who I am.

I can not express my gratitude enough for all that I have been blessed with, for the miracles, friends, loves, everything. So many songs come to my mind as I think about and feel this gratitude and love. I am so very grateful that I can have access to my Father in Heaven wherever I am and whenever I want...all I have to do is open my mouth and heart. No words need to be uttered, only the speaking of my spirit to Him. He hears prayers, He answers prayers, He wants to bless us with blessings beyond our understanding. He wants us to come to Him, to talk to Him.

You who read this and those who don't, you are in my prayers always. I love you all beyond words. If you were ever in my life and heart, you will always be. I am so grateful to have you in my life and share this earthly experience with you. I am grateful for every memory that I have been blessed with and look forward to many many more. I am grateful for the love and look forward to expanding this loving heart that Heavenly Father has blessed me with.

I'm not trying to brag, just filled with so much emotion and gratitude that I had to share. I love you all. May the Lord bless you with those blessings that He desires to bless you. Let Him in your heart and lives.

HOME

For two years we've called this place "home" . It felt right when Colleen Higley told me about it. It felt right when I saw the online ad and pictures. It felt right the whole time during church that sunday when I could focus on nothing more than this house in Emmett for rent. That day, Diane Brissette was texting me, telling me that their family was going to sacrament meeting and then heading to Hermiston to help us pack and load up.....

After church, I got on the phone with the property management company to find out about the house. Another friend from New Plymouth had found another house in Fruitland for us to look at. We made an appointment to see the house in Emmett for tuesday sometime.

Monday, we loaded the trailer and emptied the house. Tuesday, we drove to Idaho with no solid deal for a home to live in. We saw the Fruitland home, then the Emmett home... as we walked through the doors of 1158 Kaetzel way, we knew we were home. We were moved in and settling within two hours of our first seeing the house.

Now, two years later, we are preparing to say goodbye to this home we've loved for this time. It is a bittersweet farewell. We knew the time would be short when we began to rent this house. Now the time has come that we have an amazing opportunity to finally be able to save up to buy a house and cut our rent in half...literally... We are sad to leave Emmett, but the boys will still be playing for the huskies through optimist football :) The coaches...Dallin's coaches were not on speaking terms with us for a while until we told them we were going to bring the boys back to play each day :) It's going to be quite an adventure leaving this home we've loved, but we are so grateful for the chance once again buy a home in a year or so.

We went to our new ward yesterday and were welcomed by so many. There are family and friends already in our ward and in our new town of Middleton Idaho. It will be a great new experience for our family.

Aaron is looking forward to a new larger marching band and football. All of the boys are excited to go to a new school and be closer to some fun things and meet new friends and keep the old :)

What a blessing this is going to be for our family.. I am so very grateful to my dear friend Colleen for finding this Emmett home for us two years ago. It has been such a blessing to be closer to family and friends who have loved our family and supported our family throughout these two years.

Boys and Brownies

Even though I am a mother of 5 boys and not a single girl in the bunch, my boys have learned some great homemaking skills :)

I've taken from my experiences, the opportunity to prepare my boys to be fathers and husbands and good missionaries. Each one of them has had some great times in the kitchen sharing and learning how to cook many different things from snacks to breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Aaron has been such a huge help this past year for me and has made so many dinners. He's gotten creative and made some super yummy dishes and some have been huge learning experiences for him. Even the rough times haven't scared him away from cooking, for which I am so grateful.

Dallin has shown an interest in learning how to cook this past year as well as Josh. They've learned how to make jello, pudding, cookies.

This afternoon, I asked Aaron to make some brownies. Dallin asked if he could make them instead...so Dallin got to make brownies on his own for the first time today :) I was in the kitchen making queso for dinner and supervising Dallin's brownie making. He did a great job and made some very tasty brownies :)

What a blessing that my boys are willing and eager to learn how to cook. That is one area that I don't worry about them, they will be able to feed themselves and their roomates, companions and wives :)

Happy 4th of July!

What a blessing to live in such a wonderful time and a wonderful country. We have so many freedoms and are so blessed to be able to continue some of those freedoms... .I pray that th Lord will continue to bless us that we may be able to share these freedoms with others.

I am so very grateful for all those who have gone before and have sacrificed their lives for our freedoms. I thank each and every one who still continues to sacrifice for our great country!

In our travels this past month, we have been so blessed to see some amazingly beautiful country. Each scene and picture I took was a reminder to me how blessed we really are. There is so much beauty that God has created in the natural landscapes from sea to sea. We saw such majesty in the snow covered sawtooth mountains of Idaho.... deep red and flat plains of Texas... We saw so many colors of the gorges in Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and more majestic mountains of Utah. What a blessing to have had this opportunity and the privilage of being able to travel freely from state to state :)

I am filled with gratitude today.... Thank you!!! God bless the USA!!!

Happy 4th of July from the Hallam's!!!!

HOME!!!!

We're home now! What an adventure! Pictures to follow at some point lol.... the hardest part about a vacation is getting home and unpacking and getting back to the grind lol... Although there is a ton to do to get things back in order, it was so nice yesterday to realize that I don't HAVE to buy groceries in order for us to eat.... WE HAVE FOOD IN OUR FREEZER AND PANTRY!!!! Thanks to a wonderful couponing teacher and some sweet deals!!!!

Since we had some time to choose our own adventure home, we decided to stop at places we had talked about going to one day.... Monday was the day!!! Craters of the moon, Sun Valley, Pepperidge Farm thrift store, Indian reservation for fireworks, driving through the Sawtooths!!! All things on my bucket list lol.... not to add to it :)

Cooling off in Texas!!!

Tuesday we went to Lubbock Rampage water park. The temperatures have been in the 100s since before we got here to Lubbock and the wind has blown so bad since we got here most afternoons. We decided to take a day and relax in some cool water and a lazy river and tide pool :)

The boys all had a great time playing in the water and racing down the slides. When we first got to the park, there weren't many people there, but by the time we left there were a ton of people at the park.

I think Kyler's favorite part of swimming was the fact that he could push and pull the tubes around the river while the floater relaxed lol.... He pulled and pushed Tim around the river a few times; then he did the same for Aaron.

In the tide pool, we all got on our tubes and got into the middle of the pool at the front of the wave pool where the waves were made. We held onto each others tubes and enjoyed some big waves....that was really fun although there are no pictures.... I need to invest in a waterproof camera I think hehehehe ;)

We stayed from noon to about 4pm, then went for some ice cream...errr frozen custard YUMMY!!!!! For dinner, we brought home some J&M BBQ super yummmy!!!!!

ARCHES!!!

On our way to Texas, we were going to go by way of Rock Springs and Martin's Cove... however, as we looked at the map closer, we realized that Martin's cove and Independence Rock were about 400 miles out of the way :( Instead of going that direction, we decided to go back to our original route choice which was south through Arches and Moab.

The drive was just as beautiful as it was last year :) When we got to Arches and were driving around the park, the boys were amazed at the beauty. We parked at double arch and windows parking lot and decided to hike to double arch.

We had a great hike and a wonderful time climbing all over the formation and taking pictures. The boys had so much fun just climbing and posing and being silly :) We had some great laughs and got some hilarious pictures :)

Brandon and Tim were doing a photo shoot for a new verizon wireless ad ;) lol not really, but it looks good anyway ;)

Aaron and Dallin were my "thinkers"

All of them were hams for the camera!!!!

Even my caveman Aaron....

he also tried to be a muscle man and lift the big rock hehehehe

Chip off the ol' block

I've been couponing now since April and have loved finding some awesome deals and tons of FREEBIES :) I try to go without the boys so that I don't get upset at them for asking for things or making me lose my concentration. However, Dallin had wanted to go with me and learn some of the couponing magic that goes into the sweet finds that I've brought home.

When I take Dallin shopping with me, he's my extra eyes, he has found some interesting coupons... some are really good deals making somethings almost free.... then I look at the expiration date andthey have been 2007 and 2010 lol some shoppers haven't kept up on their coupons and have slipped these coupons onto th shelf instead of using the trash can lol... Dallin has really learned a lot about couponing and has even been able to get us some great deals. He loves helping me get things off the shelves or just count up items and make sure we have all of our coupons in place.

Yesterday, when I went to Walgreens, I took Dallin... he had a dollar in his pocket just burning a hole in it lol. I told him that there woud be a ton of transactions because I was getting some sobe lifewater that was on sale for 99cents with a register reward of 99cents thus making it FREE or something else FREE!!! but either way FREE STUFF!!!! As I was doing my transactions, Dallin was wandering the store looking for his own SWEET deal ;) He saw in the ad that there were store brand orange slices on sale for 49 cents. I gave Dallin a register reward to use to make his purchase... he got two bags of orange slices and one coconut twix for 57 cents :) YAY!!! He was sooo excited to get to use his very own "coupon" that's what he called it hehehehe

Another really sweet victory happened yesterday as we were driving to Utah.... Aaron had made some sandwiches for dinner and I had packed a ton of food, drinks and snacks... As we were eating and enjoying, I passed around a bag of m&m's for each of the boys. Aaron asked me "Is all of this food from couponing?" I told him it was all from couponing and was all super sweet deals, he then asked me "When I get married can you please teach my wife?" hahahaha this is such a change from a few weeks ago of Aaron's view of couponing I LOVE IT!!!! The boys have caught the craze!!!!

YUM YUM YUM!!!!

A friend from work that I had lunch with everyday told me about a meal she makes for her family and they love it... she calls it inside out pizza..... well I took that idea and decided to make pizza braids for dinner tonight using my Rhodes bread dough that I got on a great deal with coupons :)

I used two of the loaf rolls to make the pizza braids for dinner and left the third one on the counter to rise. With the third loaf, I made a triple berry cheesecake braid!!!!

The pizza braids were so yummy. Everything I used to make the braids were bought with coupons :) I used some pasta sauce, mini pepperoni, ground beef, itallian cheese with philly and of course the rhodes bread dough. I know they don't look professional but they sure were tasty the boys ate them up!!!! I think this is a new hit in our house, so I am going to have to be on the lookout for more Rhodes coupons unless I want to make the dough myself hahahaha

The berries that I used in the triple berry braid were blackberries from the bountiful baskets, raspberries from the berry farm in New Plymouth gleaned lastyear :) and blueberries bought from the bishop storehouse last year :)

The smell in the house is so inviting and pleasant!!! I LOVE IT!!! Can't wait to let the boys eat these berry braids for breakfast in the morning :) and can't wait to make these in Texas for everyone!!!!

oh by the way.... 10 DAYS!!!! Dallin is counting down the days for our family :)