3rd Annual Don & Shirley Hallstrom Family Reunion

On Saturday,  June 27, 2015, we hosted the 3rd Annual Don & Shirley Hallstrom Family Reunion.  We had a total of 16 of us gather at our home for lunch and some catching up.  We had a baked potato bar and strawberry ice cream cake out in our backyard.  My brother, Mark brought his new puppy, Blue to meet everyone.  That puppy was the center of attention.  Grandma Hallstrom had fun showing Jeff & Ali Hallstrom her family history albums.  Ali took some photos of the family history photos with her phone.  Jeff & Ali drove up from Mission Viejo, CA with their three boys, Evan, Tyler, and Spencer.  Their boys loved playing in our backyard.  Chris Hallstrom, my brother, Mark, and Nathan Kristjanson stayed the longest.  As we were all sitting around visiting, Katie randomly hands us each a sheet of construction paper.  I ended up showing everyone how to make paper boats.  (My Aunt Janette Kristjanson taught me how to make paper boats when she came to visit us when I was 7 years old.)  Then, Nathan taught us how to make these fun little paper airplanes.  I liked having a low key reunion this year.  It still took a lot of planning, cleaning, and food prep, but it's always worth gathering the family together.

Ty, Brian, Evan, Blue (the dog) held by Mark, Tyler, Chris, Ali, Spencer, Jeff, Grandma Shirley, Calvin, Nathan, Katie, Lisa, Julia, Sam

 Brian, Ty, Blue (the dog) held by Mark, Tyler, Chris, Ali, Spencer, Jeff, Grandma Shirley, Calvin, Nathan, Katie, Julia, Lisa, Sam 

 Grandma Shirley with her adult grandkids: Mark, Chris, Nathan, Lisa, Jeff

There was a little water fight going on... ha!

 Nathan, Tyler, and Chris hanging out

Julia 4-8 weeks old

1 month old

Crossing my fingers she finally loves her binkie!#binkiebabiesunite

Full tummy = happy sleepy baby

My Superman... a Superdad too

"Katie's babies"

Deep Sleep

Sleepy Girl

Finally sleeping after our failed attempt at getting photos of her in her blessing dress.

Aunt Laura meets Julia

After school snuggles with my girls. I love having two girls :) #dinnermakingcanwaitsnugglingcannot

Uncle Calvin holding Julia

Great Grandma Hallstrom holding Julia

Sweet baby girl

Corinne & Andrew are Married!

My cousin, Corinne married her best friend yesterday in the Salt Lake Temple!

Andrew and Corinne Smart

Congratulations!!!

Scott, Stephen, Angela, Andrew, Corinne, Aunt Karen, Uncle Dennis, Rachelle, Kiara

Andrew, Corinne, Elizabeth, Matthew

Grandma Hallstrom, Andrew, Corinne

Sierra, Angela, Scott, Michelle (Scott and Michelle are my cousins)

(My Grandma is the cutest, isn't she?)

I just love this next series of photos. These newlyweds were married just 2 1/2 months ago.

Not so sure about that kiss.

Lovin' it.  

Ah yeah!

Corinne and Michelle both got the tall genes!

Great work, ladies!

The open house was held that evening at Andrew's grandmother's house.  

SURPRISE!!!

One Sunday evening, earlier this month, I was just hanging out with my kids downstairs.  We were watching The Planet Earth on TV to kill some time while Sam was out Home Teaching.  I got a text message from my Aunt Karen (who I text and chat on the phone with every so often) asking me what I was up to.  Aunt Karen went on to say how she wishes she could come to my house and meet my kids.        She lives all the way in southern California and I'd only met her twice myself.  While we continued to share text messages, there was a knock at our front door.  I told Tyler to go and answer the door, assuming it would be Sam returning from Home Teaching and not wanting to touch the hot doorknob. (The doorknob gets super hot in the evening with the sun beating down on it.)  I didn't hear Sam and I began to wonder who in the world Tyler was talking to.  So I grabbed Katie and wandered upstairs.  This is what happened:
Surprise Visitors from Lisa Ward on Vimeo.
So, Sam came home minutes later with 10 family members in his house! Aunt Karen, Uncle Dennis, Kiera, Rachelle, Grandma Hallstrom, Uncle Calvin, Calvin's fiancé, Michelle, and Michelle's two boys, Steven and McKay. My boys were in heaven staying up late and jumping on the trampoline in the dark with their cousins. Katie was a good sport and showed off her cute little self. Katie found Rachelle's church shoes by the front door. Katie got so frustrated because she couldn't get the darn shoes on her feet. She let it be known that she was upset that those shoes didn't fit. We laughed and talked about how she was acting "SO FEMALE" and like one of Cinderella's evil stepsisters. Uncle Dennis got the shoe to fit alright and then Katie was happy. Anyway, it was SO fun to introduce Aunt Karen to my family, show her around my house, and so her all of my blogs and all of my photography gear. Aunt Karen and I talked nonstop for over 4 hours! I was SO glad they surprised us and that we could have a nice visit.

Family Visitors from Georgia!

Aunt Janette and Uncle Eric came over for dinner a few weeks ago.  They were in Utah to visit Grandma Hallstrom and Uncle Calvin.  Nathan, my cousin, drove up from Provo.  We had pulled pork and gravy sandwiches, pasta salad, grapes, zucchinni bread, and corn on the cob.  It was fun to catch up with them and visit.  The guys were so kind to offer to do the dishes and clean up the kitchen so Katie and I could go on a walk with Aunt Janette.   After the kids went to bed, Nathan entertained us by telling us about his experience playing Joseph Smith in Boise's Institute production of "My Servant Joseph."  He showed us a slideshow and sang us a couple of songs that he sang in the production.  Nathan surprised all of us with a CD of all the songs sung by the cast he was in this summer.  Wow!

Uncle Eric's birthday was the day after he came to our house.  We sang to him around 10pm and each had a big piece of the homemade chocolate applesauce cake that I made. They drove up to Rexburg the following morning for their first grandson's baby blessing.  My cousin, Ryan and his wife, Jessica have a baby boy named Braxton.

These pictures are ones that I "borrowed" from my Aunt Janette's blog.

July 25th

We had two guests for dinner this past Sunday, Grandma Hallstrom and Uncle Calvin.  We had homemade mac and cheese along with some ham.  Then it was time for the birthday boy, my Uncle Calvin, to blow out the candle on his cake.  We had a nice time celebrating.     

Thanksgiving Weekend 2009

We hosted Thanksgiving dinner at our house. It was the fourth year in a row that we've hosted. Grandma Hallstrom helped a ton. She brought some extra chairs, a table cloth, fancy china, silverware, and goblets, and lots of food. Our guests were: Grandma Hallstrom, Joyce Jacobs (Grandma's friend), Uncle Calvin, Nathan (my cousin), Amy (my sister), Mike (Amy's boyfriend), and Laura (my sister). It was fun being together as a family. The meal was so tasty and definitely worth all the time in the kitchen. We were in charge of the turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, rolls, drinks, corn, and a dessert. For dessert, Grandma made two apple pies and Sam and I made a pumpkin roll. Here's a picture of most of us enjoying a conversation over dessert:After dinner, we enjoyed a power point presentation by Nathan. Sam hooked up Nathan's laptop to our big tv so we could see larger pictures. This past July, Nathan returned home from a mission to Mozambique. He is a funny guy and told us about the culture in Mozambique as well as several mission stories. After the presentation, we enjoyed our dessert and then presented Grandma Hallstrom with a few early Christmas presents. The gifts were from her whole family and I put the gifts together. You can enjoy the video a little later once I get it posted:

In addition to the large collage frame full of family pictures, I made Grandma a scrapbook version of family photos. I also created a slideshow of family photos that I posted on my blog recently. Grandma was very touched by the gifts and can't wait to get the collage frame hung on her wall.

After our boys went to bed, we rearranged the furniture in the family room and Sam set up our Christmas tree. Then, Sam and I watched the new Pixar movie, 'Up' with Laura and Nathan. It was my first time seeing that movie. I enjoyed it. I could tell that the people who created the movie had big imaginations. Laura, Nathan, and Amy spent the night.

The next morning, I did a portrait photo shoot of Amy. My Mom wanted a good picture of Amy to hang on her mantle above her fireplace. Here are some of my favorite photos I got of Amy:

Amy and I stopped by for a quick bite to eat at McDonald's. We had chicken nuggets and chocolate milkshakes. It was fun to hang out with my sister.

Like last year, Laura is performing in the church production, "Savior of the World." Sam and I were lucky enough to get to see Laura in the play over Thanksgiving weekend. We drove Laura back for her Friday night performance. Sam and I were lucky enough to get standby tickets and awesome seats (3rd row from the front on the left hand side of the theater). I was hoping Laura would look out into the audience and see us. At the very end of the show, Laura glanced over and gave me a big smile. It's such a great show! We wandered over to Temple Square and saw all the Christmas lights before heading home. Thank you, Amy and Mike for babysitting for us!

On Saturday night, I hung out with my second cousin, Angela. She lives in the same town as me. I picked her up and we headed off to see the new movie, 'The Blind Side.' We arrived at the theater and found out that the tickets were sold out. So we went to another theater. The movie was sold out there too. We purchased some tickets for the 9:45pm show and did a little Christmas shopping for a couple hours.

On Sunday evening, I went on my date with Brian. The two of us drove to Layton to visit my cousin Jerry's family and my cousin David's family (who were visiting from Arizona). Brian loves playing with Jerry's son, Hunter. Hunter and Brian are only 10 days apart in age. Brian wasn't as interested in playing with Hunter this time. He was more interested in the food and the fancy bathrooms they had. Oh well. I had fun catching up with my cousins. The last time I'd seen my cousin David was in 1998 at the Van Wie Farm in New York. Anyway, here is a picture of the Van Wie Cousin Reunion of 2009:

Jerry & Marla's kids with their Arizona cousins

David, Amy, Lisa, Jerry