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Halliday Family Blog

Halliday Family Blog/

Thanksgiving Blessings

Today we had a wonderful Thanksgiving!  We had a couple of families over to celebrate with us.  Initially, Angela had said it would be very low-key, but I think my definition of low-key is a LOT different than hers!  🙂  We cleaned like crazy, cooked like crazy, and prepared like crazy to get ready for our guests.

The kids did a GREAT job on the Thanksgiving tables (we had to have 2 in order to fit everyone):

We had all kinds of wonderful food (some of the typical dishes you would expect to have at Thanksgiving) and were stuffed.  We then just visited, relaxed, and enjoyed each other’s company.  We wrote down on paper cutouts of turkeys and leaves (that Kirstyn made) all the things we were thankful for.

We love thanksgiving!  It’s a time to enjoy thinking about the blessings we all enjoy and spending time together as family and friends.  Unfortunately, many don’t see it that way.  Halloween is huge and then people skip right to Christmas.  It really bugs us that our society goes right from Halloween decorations to Christmas decorations in the same breath.  The day after Halloween, you start seeing ads for Christmas!  🙁

By |2011-01-03T12:20:48-07:00November 25th, 2010|Home Life|0 Comments
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Just Dance 2 Party!

Recently, Angela entered to win a Just Dance 2 Party and won (she seems to be winning a lot of this stuff lately)!  She got the Wii Just Dance 2 Game for free along with a bunch of other stuff to host a party.  She and the girls invited over friends and had a girls night party playing Just Dance 2 on the Wii and eating a bunch of food!  They had a blast!  Zach joined in because a couple of his friends came over and he didn’t want to be left out.  🙂

Unfortunately, when I went downstairs to check on them and got the camera, I wasn’t fast enough to get any pictures of the adults playing!  🙂

By |2010-12-22T07:23:38-07:00November 24th, 2010|Home Life|0 Comments
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Creative Little Boys!

The boys had a very creative day today!  They got out Zach’s Thomas the Tank Engine track set and built a person on the floor of the family room.  They were SO proud of it!

We had to take some pictures because we knew that shortly thereafter, the wrecking balls (a.k.a Ben and Zach) would come sweeping through and create something else.  🙂

Great work boys!

By |2010-12-22T07:15:04-07:00November 21st, 2010|Home Life|0 Comments
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Kirstyn EEP!

As we mentioned in an earlier post, Kirstyn applied for and was accepted to a girls engineering program at Northern Illinois University (Naperville Campus).  It’s called NIU EEP (Northern Illinois University Enhancing Engineering Pathways) and is designed to get middle school girls interested in engineering fields of study.  Today was her first day and she had a blast!  There are about 75 or so girls involved and she knows a couple.  This will help for carpooling!  She will be doing this every other Saturday through February or March (I think)!

By |2010-12-22T07:10:56-07:00November 20th, 2010|Home Life, School|0 Comments
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Primary Party and Church Production

Today, Zach and Kirstyn had a Primary party at the church that they went to.  After that, I stayed home with Ben and the rest of the family went to Savior of the World.  It was a great production put on by the Naperville Stake.  It was a musical drama presented with a live chorus and stage actors depicting the birth and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The girls really loved it.  All together, there were about 180 volunteer actors, choir members and backstage crew from nine area congregations of the church.  It was very touching.  I wish I could have gone, but I would have been out in the hall with Ben the whole time.  🙂

By |2010-12-22T07:06:25-07:00November 19th, 2010|Church|0 Comments
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Kirstyn Chorus Concert!

Tonight, Kirstyn had her first middle school chorus concert and did a GREAT job!  Zach and Ben came too and we were floored that they also did a great job sitting still and quiet.

Right after Kirstyn sang, I took the boys and we walked home while the rest stayed and enjoyed the singing of the older groups.  We knew the boys couldn’t last much longer!  🙂

By |2010-12-22T06:58:23-07:00November 17th, 2010|School|0 Comments
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Work Thanksgiving Party!

Today, we had the Grant Thornton Thanksgiving party.  Our division was assigned to bring the main dish, so I signed-up to bring meatballs.  Little did I know that my boss had just given the event planning group some money to buy all the stuff.  🙂  From the list, I looked like I was the only one bringing anything, so I was a little nervous.  🙂

I threw a bunch of frozen meatballs into a slow cooker and covered them with 2 bottles of Lawry’s Caribbean Jerk Marinade and let it sit overnight.  I then brought them in and let them cook for 4 hours.  Everybody LOVED them!  There were a bunch of people who wanted to know the secret recipe and I just had to laugh as I told them.  It was pretty funny!

I ate a TON of great food and was totally stuffed full of food by the time I was done.  There were some great desserts as well and in total, I probably ate about 4000 calories!  I wasn’t hungry for dinner when I got home.  😐

By |2010-12-15T13:17:15-07:00November 16th, 2010|Work-Related|0 Comments
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Twelfth Night Performance!

Yesterday (Brittany and I) and today (Angela and Kirstyn), we went to the high school and watched Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night performed by the students.  The cool thing was that Sarah was in the production as the musical talent between scenes!  🙂  She did a great job and had a lot of fun doing it!

She and 3 other students played in a recorder quartet.  She was the soprano recorder, got to dress up in medieval clothes, and was able to play in the box area up and to the right of the stage.  That was probably the most exciting thing for her.  Not many people get to go up there!

The kids did a great job and it was quite funny!

By |2010-12-03T15:19:57-07:00November 14th, 2010|School|0 Comments
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Seven Brides for Seven Brothers!

Tonight, Angela and I went to Drury Lane Theater in Oakbrook and saw Seven Brides for Seven Brothers!  Angela surprised me with tickets and we were very excited to go!  It was 20 years ago that we first met, got together, and this was the first film that we watched together at a ward leadership activity.  🙂  It was a great production!  They did a great job with the stage, and the actors musical talents were great!

We had great seats (right in the center, about half-way back) and it was nice just to be there together!  Before we went to the theater, we went out to dinner and enjoyed talking.  It doesn’t seem like it’s been 20 years since we have known each other!  🙂  Time really flies!  We met some really nice people there at the theater and Angela and the lady chatted up a storm (before, during intermission, and after, of course)!  🙂

Thanks for the great evening Angela!  🙂

By |2010-12-03T15:13:24-07:00November 11th, 2010|Home Life|0 Comments
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Parent Teacher Conferences – Round 2!

Tonight was round 2 of Parent Teacher Conferences!  We visited Still Middle School first and talked to Kirstyn’s teachers.  She’s doing great and her teachers really love her!

We then went up to visit with Sarah’s teachers at the high school.  She is doing very well and we are proud of her also.  With a little more application, she could be right at all A grades.

Keep up the great work, kids!

By |2010-12-03T14:46:10-07:00November 10th, 2010|School|0 Comments
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Kirstyn Band Concert!

Tonight was Kirstyn’s first band concert of middle school!  She was so excited to get there and play for everyone!  She’s quite the little performer!  She practiced really hard and she is quite talented on her Clarinet!

The concert went well and we couldn’t believe it… Zach and Ben came and actually behaved themselves!  We were very grateful for their quiet attitudes tonight!

By |2010-12-03T15:00:48-07:00November 9th, 2010|School|0 Comments
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Parent Teacher Conferences – Round 1!

Tonight was round 1 of Parent Teacher Conferences!  We visited Gombert first and talked to Zach’s teacher.  He’s doing great with the exception of the talking and not listening to his teachers sometimes!  🙁  We need to work with him on that!  Part of it may be that he is bored with what the other kids are doing and wants to be challenged more.  He is usually the first one done with assignments.  He is still reading like crazy and is on a 3rd+ grade level.

We then went up to visit with Brittany’s teachers (and 1 of Sarah’s) at the high school.  She is doing very well and we are proud of her also.  With a little more application, she could be right at all A grades.

We’re interested in what Kirstyn’s and Sarah’s teachers have to say during round 2 next week!

Keep up the great work, kids!

By |2010-11-23T06:28:29-07:00November 4th, 2010|School|0 Comments
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