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Graduation, Lucy's Blessing, and Family

We had a fantastic end of April. Even with Sofie's four molars coming in, we couldn't have been more happy last month. The highlight was having so much family in town. Here are a few things that always happen when any Hallows get together:

• Bret grills something
• A new nickname is pegged on someone
• A story involving cousin Steele is told
• A few people cry

And here are a few things that always happen when any Dicksons get together:

• Devin punches someone/thing
• A destination in Ticket to Ride is used casually in a joke
• Aunt Dana performs some selfless act of service
• A plan is made for an activity at "The Beach 2009"

We love our family and we thoroughly enjoyed being with all of them a few weeks ago. Congrats to Lucy on being blessed.

A few words on graduating from BYU:

HOT DANG...I'm done.

Zapatos

She can dance. She can walk in heels. She can't do both together.......yet.

A Few Great Decisions

This past week I was reminded of a couple of decisions that I have made that really paid off big time: Toro Baseball in High School and the MUSA Club in College.

On Thursday I went out to lunch with my former teammate from high school, Brad Mills. Brad and I were work out partners in the off season and we had a lot of fun pushing each other in the weight room. After high school Brad pitched at the University of Arizona and was then drafted in the fourth round by the Blue Jays. He is now at the Triple A level and was in town this week playing the Salt Lake Bees. We met up for lunch and had a great time reminiscing on some high school memories.

Playing baseball was a great thing for me. First, it kept me busy and involved in something worthwhile. Second, I made some lasting friendships with some really great guys. Third, we won a lot of games and it was fun talking so much smack. Lastly and most importantly, I saw what hard work and dedication can bring --- success. We had some great times.

Also this week was our our last council meeting for MUSA, which is the club at the business school of BYU for all of the undergraduate students. I have served as an officer this year and helped put on many of the activities. It provided me the opportunity to get to know a lot of people and to be able to give back to the school that has done so much for me.

Our MUSA council consisted of about 20 amazing people. I was really impressed at how selfless each of them were and how successful they have been up to now. Serving with them has been fun and taught me a lot.

Noteworthy

I am so behind in my blogging I thought I'd do a quick update. The following are not listed in any particular order.

Sofie goes wild over the accesory section at Forever 21.

She still loves long walks with her baby.

We don't have a good picture to document but Jarem and Spence did the Splash and Dash at BYU, a mile swim followed by a 10k run. This is quite an accomplishment for Jarem as he learned how to swim for the first time this past summer.
Jarem recieved the Merrill J. Bateman Award. He was nominated by his peers as the outstanding business school undergrad this year.

We were privileged to visit with the Cranes at a PRSJM reunion.

Palmer came to meet Lucy and visit BYU for the first time. He'll be a freshman there in the fall. Our cousin Salem came to visit from Chicago and it was so fun to see her!
Lucy is 4 weeks old today and allready adores her aunt Aly.

Sofie holding Lucy "all by herself" for the first time. Now she constantly begs to hold Lucy.

Jarem is a fantastic father and regularly takes shifts with Lucy at night as she hasn't quite mastered the awake during the day and asleep at night concept.
And last but certainly not least, at 16 months Sofie's hair is finally long enough to mess up!

Me and My Homie

There are a lot of reasons why me and Sofie are tight. Here are just a few:

• As you can see in the picture, we were both blessed with the most beautiful set of EARS you could ever wish for.
• We have similar dance moves, and we are both willing to SHAKE IT anytime, anywhere.
• If Camilla would let us, we would only eat ICE CREAM and waffle cones.
• We carry our BALDNESS gracefully.
• We brush our teeth and SHAVE together every single morning before I go to work and school (although my toothbrush doesn't have princesses on it). Sof loves the electric razor vibration on her cheeks.
• We both get pretty GROUCHY without meals, snacks, and naps.
• We both go through a ziplock bag full of CEREAL each during Sacrament Meeting.

I love my Sofie.

Sweet Lucy

Beyonce has her newest fan --- Lucy Renee Hallows. Lucy was born Wednesday night at 5:05 p.m. and she was 8 pounds 6 ounces and 20 inches long. This is how it all went down:

• Camilla had contractions all Tuesday night and woke up Wednesday morning having regular but light contractions. We went into the hospital at 8:00 a.m.
  
• Of course, as soon as the nurses got Camilla hooked up to the machines her contractions completely stopped. After an hour the nurse came in and told us we had to go home.
  
• Camilla put up a persuasive arguement listing all of the reasons why she was going to have the baby that day. She was determined to not go home and prepped the nurse to go back to the doctor and convince him to induce us.
  
• Christy (our amazing nurse) came back 5 minutes later and surprisedly told us, "He said YES! We're going to induce you right now."
  
• 10:15 a.m. Camilla was induced
  
• 2:00 p.m. the doctor broke her water
  
• 4:00 p.m. Camilla started to progress pretty quickly
  
• 4:50 p.m. she was fully dilated
  
• 5:00 p.m. Camilla pushed through three contractions
  
• 5:05 p.m. Lucy Arrived!

It honestly happened that quickly and smoothly.

First impressions of Lucy:

• She's perfect
  
• A thicker version of Sofie
  
• I wanna squeeze her cheeks
  
• Look at those thighs
  
• Loved nursing since age 23 minutes
  
• Cuddly
  
• She didn't get Jarem's ears
  

I believe the most important impression is the one that Lucy made on us. She's fresh from God's presence and that is extremely apparent. She's eternally apart of our family, our hearts, and our lives. It's going to be a sweet ride everyday from here on out with our little Lucy.