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Halliday Family Blog

Halliday Family Blog/

Temple after Church & Sarah Set Apart!

Today after church, we went up to the Denver Temple and took some family pictures.  Tripods and self-timers are great!  We had a wonderful time on our last Sunday with Sarah here with us.

Tonight, we went over to President Gregg Lindsey’s home for Sarah to get set apart as a missionary.  What a sweet experience that was.  In our discussion with him, we found out that his brother who used to be inactive was just re-activated and his family baptized.  They are in the Frankfort Branch out in our old stake!  What a small world.  We’ll have to e-mail President Carlson and let him know.

Anyway, the setting apart was a beautiful experience and it was such a wonderful feeling to stand there with President Lindsey and participate.  What a warm feeling comes to your heart when you know that your daughter is making such a great decision on her own (with absolutely no coaxing from us) to serve the Lord and to bring souls the happiness the gospel can bring.  We may not be the best parents in the world, but we did something right and that feels good!  🙂

Sarah goes into the MTC this week and we are going to be very sad to see her go, but know she is doing the right thing!  Best of luck Sarah!

 

By |2013-08-19T05:54:49-07:00May 5th, 2013|Church, Home Life|0 Comments
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Mormon Prom in CO and Anniversary!

What a busy day we had today!  First off…  Happy 22nd Anniversary Angela!  What a great and crazy ride it’s been so far!

Today, most of the day was spent getting Brittany ready for Mormon Prom.  She was so excited!  They had a group of friends with a triple date and 2 guys that went stag.  They all met at our house for pictures and then we went over to our neighbor’s and asked them if we could take some pictures in their back yard, because they have grass!  🙂  It was a lot of fun and the kids were really excited to go.

The kids all went to Red Robin for dinner (Sarah and Kirstyn ran over to make sure they got the group on the list for seating), and then went up to the dance.

Meanwhile, after the kids were gone, Angela and I went out for a nice romantic anniversary dinner at the Cheesecake Factory (way better than Red Robin)!  🙂  We had a GREAT time!  The wait was pretty long, so we walked over to the Lego Store and got some stuff for the boys.  🙂  Pretty romantic part of the evening, huh?  🙂  The food was great and they gave us a piece of cheesecake for our anniversary.

We had a great time and it was nice to just chat and relax.  I think that dinner tonight was probably the slowest one we have ever eaten.  Usually it’s get in, eat, and get on.  We need to learn to relax a little more.  🙂  Happy Anniversary beautiful!

 

By |2013-08-19T05:42:04-07:00May 3rd, 2013|Church, Home Life|0 Comments
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Sarah Farwell and Brunch!

Today Sarah had her mission farewell talk.  She did a wonderful job, and the good thing was that she already had her talk prepared from when she spoke in Naperville!  🙂  Brittany spoke with her and it was great to hear her words and testimony as well!  The only problem (which, according to the Bishopric had NEVER happened before) was that the microphone didn’t work during Sacrament meeting.  🙁  They had to speak up really loud to be heard.  Thank heaven we were sitting a little closer to the front!  🙂

After church, we had a big lunch together with some friends and family.  There were about 30 people there!  🙂

It’s hard to believe that we only have about 10 days before Sarah goes into the MTC!  We are so excited for her, but will miss her like crazy when she leaves!

 

 

 

By |2013-08-09T06:13:27-07:00April 28th, 2013|Church, Home Life|0 Comments
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Fun Day Celebrating Sarah’s Mission Call

This morning we all went up to the temple together with Sarah and all the extended family there that could go.  We had a wonderful session and then took a bunch of pictures afterward.  It is such a  GREAT thing being able to be in the temple with your daughter!  Not only does everyone there feel the spirit but you know that she is there because she is prepared and has lived a life worthy of it.  It really solidifies in your heart that you did something right as a parent!  🙂

The rest of the day was busy as well!  We went to Dawson’s Butte, had a GREAT picnic, and then all took a 5 mile hike together.

When we finished, we were exhausted, but it was beautiful and it was great to be in the outdoors!  Even all the little kids made it through!  I ended up carrying Ben on my shoulders for almost a mile, so I am sore, but it was fun and he had a GREAT time!  That’s what family is for!  🙂

By |2013-08-09T05:58:29-07:00April 27th, 2013|Home Life|0 Comments
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Sarah Arrives Home (with G&G Halliday)

Today, Sarah arrived home from her year at BYU!  We were SO excited to see her.  We have missed her so much!  Unfortunately we won’t have much time to be with her as she goes into the MTC in 2 weeks!  Grandma and Grandpa Halliday did us a HUGE favor and came out the south way (I-70) picking up Sarah for us along the way and bringing her out, saving us about 17 hours worth of driving.  Whew!

Although Sarah was very happy to be home, it was VERY hard for her to leave her BYU family.  She made such wonderful friends out there and we couldn’t have asked for a better situation for her (other than maybe some of her grades).  🙂  She had such a great time and grew spiritually as well.  She is looking forward to going on her mission and serving the Lord.

By |2013-07-23T05:25:19-07:00April 25th, 2013|Home Life|0 Comments
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Early Family Surprise

Today we worked hard getting the house ready for our company coming to see Sarah for her mission farewell.  Just as we were finishing up, Angela’s sisters Carla and Julie and some of their kids pulled up and surprised us!  We weren’t expecting them to be here for the farewell and Angela was totally excited!  We love being closer to family.  Hopefully we can get together more often.  Tomorrow we’re expecting Grandma and Grandpa Halliday and Sarah to get here, and then Grandma and Grandpa Hobbs will be here the next day!

 

By |2013-07-23T05:21:52-07:00April 24th, 2013|Home Life|0 Comments
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Stake Women’s Conference, First Dance, and Prom Invites

Today the Stake held a Women’s Conference, and the girls went with Angela to it.  They had a good time (although the girls didn’t think they would at first).  🙂  They got to know more people from our ward and some from the stake.

Tonight was the highlight of the girl’s week.  After another week getting used to school, they were ready for a break!  They went to their first dance out here in CO.  They had a blast and really enjoyed themselves!  They came home talking up a storm about how much they liked it and about how many people were there compared to the dances in IL.  Good to see some smiles on the girl’s faces.

Zach had a blast his first week of school!  He made some new friends and is really enjoying his new class.  His teacher is very kind too and is working hard to make sure he feels comfortable.  Looks like Zach is adjusting a lot faster to his new environment than the girls are, which makes us very relieved.  We didn’t know what to expect with him.  In addition, we didn’t get any calls from the teacher about his behavior this week, so we’re in good shape!  🙂

Yesterday Brittany decided to ask Reese Graves to Mormon Prom.  Reese is the son of Steve Graves who works for me.  The family is also in our ward.  She made him two big chocolate chip cookies (pizza-sized) with the invitation on them.  She delivered them and he was pretty excited as those are his favorite cookies.  I think his family was more excited about the invitation!  🙂

Today, Brittany found a big “Yes” sign on our garage from Reese.  She is SO excited!

The crazy thing is that this weekend, she also got asked out to the High School prom by Josh Sproul, another young man in our ward.  He gave her roses with the invitation and she was very excited about that too!  Not sure exactly why she is down about being here!  I think at least this weekend, she forgot about the fact that she should be sad that she’s not in IL anymore.

Brittany answered Josh with a big cookie and thanks for the roses as well.  She’s going to have a busy next couple of weeks!  🙂

By |2013-07-23T05:17:47-07:00April 21st, 2013|Church, School|0 Comments
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Brittany ACT & Mountain Driving

Today, Brittany had the ACT.  We got up early and drove up to the high school they were taking the test at and dropped her off.  We then came home and did some housework and unpacking.  Hopefully things went well with the test.  She feels she did OK, but we’ll see what happens!  🙂

We picked her up as a family and decided to go driving up into the mountains.  It was a gorgeous day and we wanted some fresh mountain air.  We didn’t drive far, but we saw some great views.  We visited Buffalo Bill’s grave (in the mountains just outside of Denver).  We took a whole bunch of pictures.

You never get views or fresh air like that in Illinois!  Being out in nature today really helped the kids appreciate where we now live!

By |2013-07-23T05:04:11-07:00April 13th, 2013|Home Life, School|0 Comments
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Illinois Lunch and First Week of School!

Angela had a virtual lunch with her Naperville/Aurora IL girls group.  They had lunch out there and then called Angela and Skyped with her and she did a tour of the house.  Was quite sad when finished because she misses them.  Today the first week of school finished up for the girls out here.  Brittany has made some friends but is still sad and misses her IL friends.  Seminary went very well and Brittany’s teacher is wonderful!  He is watching out for her and making sure he does what he can to keep her happy!  Kirstyn is enjoying school out here too.  Things are so much more laid-back here than in District 204, however.  Here you have open campus, and there seems to be more free time to do homework and such.  The way the schedule runs is way different too.  The girls complained some, but we had to keep telling them that different is not bad.  Different is just different, and that they will get used to things.  🙂

 

By |2013-07-23T04:54:07-07:00April 12th, 2013|Home Life, School|0 Comments
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General Conference Weekend

This weekend was General Conference weekend.  We were invited to a wonderful breakfast with the Liddell family which we very much enjoyed!  We then came home and enjoyed watching conference over the internet (don’t have Dish with BYU TV yet) in our new home!

By |2013-07-23T04:47:16-07:00April 7th, 2013|Church, Home Life|0 Comments
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New Appliances Delivered!

On Saturday, we went and purchased new appliances (refrigerator, washer and dryer).  Today, they finally got delivered!  We have been really needing those three things bad!  🙂  Now we can have some non-microwavable stuff and we won’t have to go over to the Liddells to wash our clothes!

The washer and dryer are almost the exact same model (Electrolux) that we had in Illinois, only they are a year newer, have some new functions, and the dryer is electric (no gas line upstairs).

They’re silver and not white, so they look cooler too!  🙂

The kids got their way and we ended up buying the refrigerator that they really wanted.  We spent probably more than we wanted to as well, but we really like what we got.  It’s a french door (side-by-side with freezer on the bottom) LG and it even has a front beverage door that opens (Zach and Ben call it the “secret storage place”).  🙂

It’s really big and will fit all of our stuff well.  I love that the controls are all electronic and the girls LOVE the ice and water dispensers.  Funny how we can get so excited about appliances.  It’s probably because we have been without for a week now and our old fridge in IL stunk!  🙂

 

By |2013-07-19T06:10:40-07:00April 2nd, 2013|Home Life|0 Comments
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First (and Easter) Sunday in New Ward

Today was our first Sunday in our new ward.  Church starts at 8am here and it was a little difficult to get up due to all the unpacking and we were tired!  🙂  We have a feeling that our new ward will be awesome!  It was Easter Sunday today and church was great!  Everyone was so welcoming and lots of people reached out and said hi.  There were also a lot of people gone to visit family as well so the ward seemed really small, although it’s really not.

We were invited over to dinner with a family in the ward (Sprouls).  It was really a blessing for us since we have a stove but no fridge!  🙂  They are a great family and we really appreciated their kindness.

From what we hear, our ward is growing fast, so we shouldn’t feel like the brand new family for too long!

 

By |2013-07-19T05:53:55-07:00March 31st, 2013|Home Life|0 Comments
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