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Halliday Family Blog

Halliday Family Blog/

Youth Conference

Over the last 2 days, Brittany has been participating in our Stake Youth Conference.  She really enjoyed it.  It’s weird now that Sarah “too grown up” for that kind of thing.  Having only 1 daughter attend is strange.  Next year, Kirstyn will be able to go.  This year, Youth Conference was centered around a Book of Mormon theme with “Book of Mormon families” created.  They had a lot of great lessons, activities, and of course, Brittany enjoyed the dance.  She also talked a lot about the testimony meeting which built her up and made her happy!  It’s so wonderful that our youth have programs like this!  Where else can they be spiritually built up, hang out and have fun with a whole bunch of kids that have their same standards and morals, and talk about “religious stuff” openly without being poked fun at!

By |2012-07-24T06:00:36-07:00June 15th, 2012|Church|0 Comments
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Brittany Sweet 16 Party!

Today, Brittany had her sweet 16 birthday party!  We spent a lot of time planning and getting ready for this, and she invited about 70 people!  We had the party at Waubonsie Lake Park in a newly constructed and very nice pavilion with a fireplace, a great amount of space, and overlooking the lake.  It really is a nice place to have a party.  🙂

We brought a full sound system which all the kids loved and had a great time picking the songs they wanted to hear from the iPad, a screen, projector, the Wii (which we didn’t end up using due to the breeze), and kicked off the party with hot dogs over the fire, chips, drinks, and all kinds of other stuff.  The kids all really enjoyed the location and they loved the adjacent kiddie playground just as much!

We had games set up and the kids came up with their own games, hung out, and enjoyed each other’s company.  We then roasted marshmallows and ate cake and had ice cream.  Sarah made a really cool cake for Brittany that everybody thought was awesome!

We then took group pictures and the kids hung out for awhile longer, dance, played more games, and had more fun.

Overall, there were about 45 people that came.  We had a few leave before the group pic and a couple come afterward, but we tried to get everyone in the picture that we could.  Brittany had a great time and it will be a time that she won’t forget.  Fortunately, sweet 16 comes around only once!  🙂

Happy Sweet 16 Brittany!

By |2012-08-14T06:43:23-07:00June 12th, 2012|Home Life|0 Comments
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EEP Camp, ARTSpeaks BBQ, and Swimming

Today was a busy day in our household!  Kirstyn started her 2nd year of Engineering Camp at Northern Illinois University and is looking forward to a great week.  She’s going to the camp with Ashley Smith, one of her best friends, so they should have a wonderful time.

Ben and Zach also started swimming lessons.  They were so excited yesterday when we were talking about it!  They absolutely LOVE water and are not quite to where they could live in it, but they sure want to!  🙂  They did a great job their first day and Zach is now talking about doing swimming on a team rather than football.  He seems pretty serious about it so he may not play this fall.  We’ll see.

Tonight, Angela and I went over to Chip Staley’s house (the fine arts chair at Neuqua Valley High School in our district) for an ARTSpeaks group BBQ and meeting.  We had a wrap-up discussion about the results of the Fine Arts Festival and what we heard and learned from attendees there.  It was great to hear what had happened at the other 2 schools as well.  We then had dinner and relaxed outside in their huge back yard.  They have cool planter boxes and Angela ribbed me for not building some for us.  🙂  It’s great to be involved in this group.  We are now building relationships with more and more people (including all three fine arts chairs at the high schools) and other community members.  Every time we meet, Angela and I come away feeling energized about our involvement in community and school efforts.

By |2012-07-24T05:56:14-07:00June 11th, 2012|Home Life, School|0 Comments
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BYU Jumpstart Party

Tonight, Sarah attended a BYU Jumpstart Party at the home of an alumni here in Naperville (member of the Naperville 1st Ward).  They had a great time meeting many of the incoming freshmen they would be going to school with.  The main reason to pull them all together was to give them a pep talk about what to expect, and also get them acquainted with others from the area so they would feel like they had some automatic friends when they arrived on campus.

By |2012-07-24T05:49:23-07:00June 9th, 2012|School|0 Comments
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Sarah Starts 2nd Job!

Today Sarah started her second job!  We are very excited for her and with 2 jobs, she should be able to make enough money to almost cover her first year of school (with the savings she had already)!  She is being a nanny for the neighbor of some friends in our ward.  There are 2 kids, one 8 and one 12.  With the kids being that age, it shouldn’t be too hard for her to do.  🙂  Most of what she will be doing is keeping them safe, taking them to activities that they have to be to, ensuring they get 1 hour of reading time per day, and keeping the house clean.

Good luck with the job, Sarah!   🙂

By |2012-08-06T05:35:31-07:00June 4th, 2012|Home Life|0 Comments
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Father’s and Son’s and Mitzvah Ceremonies!

Last night, the boys and I went to the annual father’s and son’s campout!  We had a GREAT time and the boys really enjoyed being with their dad.  We always go to the Blackwell Forest Preserve, and as you can tell by the pictures below, it’s quite the groomed camping area!  🙂

True to tradition, we went and got KFC to eat for dinner.  That’s real camping!  🙂  It’s funny to have grown up going to father’s and son’s and cooking over the campfire (tinfoil dinners, etc.) but here, everyone goes out to KFC, Subway, Burger King, etc.   We played frisbee and tossed around footballs for awhile and when it started getting dark and the boys were tired, we went into the tent and (also true to tradition), pulled out my laptop, broke out the junk food, and watched a DVD until the food was gone and we fell asleep!  🙂

We got up early this morning and ate breakfast.  The bishopric cooks breakfast for everyone, so the boys ran around and had fun while I helped cook sausage, eggs, pancakes, etc.  We ate until we were stuffed and then packed up the tent and left.

We got home, got cleaned up, and then Angela, the girls, and I went to the neighbor twins’ Mitzvah ceremonies at the Jewish temple in Aurora.  That was a VERY interesting experience.  Almost the whole thing was done in Hebrew and we didn’t understand a thing (at least I didn’t).  I did get to wear a skull cap, however, and I got to keep it!  🙂  The service was almost 3 hours.  I can now say I have found a church that meets as long as we do!  🙂  After the ceremony, they had a luncheon with traditional foods and it was really good.  We congratulated the kids and came back home where we relaxed for the rest of the day.  🙂

By |2012-08-06T05:32:43-07:00June 2nd, 2012|Church, Home Life|0 Comments
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School’s Out!

Today was the last day of school for Brittany, Kirstyn and Zach.  Sarah thought it was funny that they had to go and acted like she was an adult on vacation this past week!  Something made her think that because she wasn’t in school and didn’t have to take finals that she was entitled to sit and watch TV, eat, and sleep!  🙂

Congratulations on a great year all!  You did it!

By |2012-08-02T06:52:32-07:00June 1st, 2012|School|0 Comments
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Finals Week (Not for Sarah)!

It’s that time!!!  Finals week has started and Brittany and Kirstyn (especially Brittany) are really stressed and are studying hard.  Good luck girls!  Sarah is really excited because for the first time, she doesn’t have to worry about finals during finals week!!!  She is really looking forward to sitting at home and thinking about what the others are doing!  🙂

By |2012-08-02T06:51:08-07:00May 29th, 2012|School|0 Comments
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Memorial Day Parade

Today I had the boys all by myself during the Memorial Day Parade!!!  Sarah and Brittany were with the Metea Marching Band, Angela was helping Band, and Kirstyn was marching with the Still Middle School band.   The boys and I had a great time relaxing and waiting for the parade to start.

The kids (and Angela) did a GREAT job marching and playing.  It’s really weird to think that this is Sarah’s very last parade/performance that she will be marching in as a High School senior.  🙁  Still came first and Kirstyn (and all the rest of the band) looked GREAT!

I tried to get a good picture of Kirstyn but I screwed up and the pictures were blurry.   Sorry cute girl!

Metea came next and they looked so good (in my opinion the best of any high school that was there).  They marched so crisp and professional!  Brittany and Sarah looked great!  Brittany got the honor of carrying the American flag.

The only picture I got of Angela was actually really funny and so I promised I wouldn’t put it into the blog.  🙂  Great job everyone!!!  Even the boys were really good and loved it there!

By |2012-08-02T06:42:57-07:00May 28th, 2012|Home Life, School|0 Comments
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High School Graduation!

It’s GRADUATION DAY!!!  Wow!  Where did the time go!  Today we attended our little “Silly Soapy’s” commencement ceremony at the University of Northern Illinois in Dekalb.  We left really early to get a good seat, and even then, we had to split up.   Angela and I were very close to the front, and Brittany and Kirstyn were back a ways.  We left the boys home with a sitter because we weren’t sure how well they would behave.  🙂

When we got there, we took a bunch of pictures.  They school made them turn in their robes right after the ceremony and told everyone that if they wanted “robes” pictures, they had to do it before and not after.

Sarah looked so mature there with all her fellow classmates!  😐  It was so exciting to see Sarah get up there and receive her diploma!  I know it’s a great accomplishment for the kids, but it also brings a huge sense of relief, pride, and sense of accomplishment for the parents as well!  After all, it takes a village to raise a child!  🙂

Congratulations Sarah!  You did it!!!  We are so proud of you!  🙂

 

By |2012-08-02T06:31:17-07:00May 27th, 2012|School|0 Comments
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PARTY!!!

Today we (and other families) threw a party for Sarah and all the graduating seniors from our ward.  We were really worried at first because we couldn’t find a place to hold it.  We looked all over and finally ended up asking the Anderson family (who’s house is still up for sale in Naperville) if we could have it there.  They said it would be a GREAT idea and the party turned out AWESOME!  We had about 150-200 people show up for the party/open house.  We had a nacho bar and desserts for all.

Everyone had a great time!  I compiled a DVD of pictures of the graduates and put together a little “shrine” with video going for the grads that everyone liked.  It was fun to watch the facial expressions of people as they watched the slideshow depicting the kids from babies all the way up to now.  🙂  We got a ton of pictures and had a bunch of great laughs with everyone who came.

After the party was over and we cleaned everything up, we went to another party for one of Sarah’s friends, Mary Kate Carroll.  She was the Drum Major at Metea in the marching band.  We’ll miss the Carrolls next year as they are all done and will now be empty nesters when Mary Kate goes off to college.  🙂

 

By |2012-08-02T06:16:46-07:00May 26th, 2012|Home Life, School|0 Comments
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Gombert Field Day, Brittany Section Leader!

Today, Zach participated in the annual Gombert Field Day and had a blast.  He loves going outside, doing all the games and having fun with all his friends.  It sure is a great break from all the classwork!  🙂  Also, we found out some GREAT news!!!  Brittany made Section Leader for Pit in the Marching Band next year!!!  She is SO excited and can’t wait.  She will be a great leader and will have a blast!

 

By |2012-07-19T06:46:07-07:00May 25th, 2012|School|0 Comments
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