Albacookie

We decided to take a quick weekend tour of the lovely desert the beginning of February. When we told Emily's dance teacher we were going to be gone she thought Emily had said we were going to Albacookie instead of Albuquerque. Actually, the trip was gather all of Jeff's family one last time before his parents leave on their mission. And since Brad's residency schedule is the hardest to work with, we all gathered at their place in New Mexico. Mike & Niki rode down with us and Dave & Arline and Stan & Mel all flew in. We spent 3 days touring a few sights, swimming, playing in the snow, laughing, chasing kids, eating, and snapping pictures. It had been almost a year since we'd all been in the same city and it was fun to finally be together again.

The drive down

Playing with Gma & all of Ella & Maggie's toys Hiking the Petroglyph's

Mexican dinner at old town Albuquerque home

Swimming @ the hotel

New Mexico Temple; Riding the tram

Sandia Peak

Hiking the volcanoes

Taking Family Pictures

Birthday Dinner @ Dion's Pizza

We had lots of fun just hanging out. Of course it's always a blast with Brad -he comes up with some great games to do with the kids.

Driving home - Monticello Temple; Our wonderful Utah Mountains!

Headbands

My sister has a good friend that makes and sells headbands. I've been to a couple parties and have lhad a hard time decided which one to buy. So I decided the best thing to do was throw my own party. A big thanks to those who came and supported me. It was fun to visit, snack on yummy food, and get some new accessories. Emily and I have both loved the new headbands we got. Here are just a few samples of what Amanda does.

Weekly Whirlwinds

I think I began this post two weeks ago. It's been a hectic, fun-filled month (creating plenty of things to blog about) but I just haven't had the time for witty writing and photo editing. I spent a little bit of time on Sunday afternoon (yeah for 9:00 church!) working on things, but ran out of time before I had to start on dinner. Then I had another crazy week that was filled to the brim only to bring another Sunday afternoon that was filled with spending time with family and a feverish little boy. The next two days found me lounging on the couch with my own gunky sickness and still attempting to take care of a sick baby. I am just now - while Emily is at preschool and Jacob is supposedly napping - finally sitting down to finish what was started so long ago. I guess we'll see how I fare. Hopefully this won't turn into a January AND February posting. Boy, that really would be a marathon post. So, without further ado, here is an update on how the Holbrook's have spent 2011 so far.

New Year's day we spent with the Wall's. We enjoyed dinner and visiting and the kids had a blast playing together. It was so fun to see their new home, chat about Cary's recovery from heart surgery, and just try and catch up. We ended up bathing the kids there and both of my kids were thrilled to have new and different toys to play with.

On the 2nd we had Sunday dinner with Jeff's family. And since Jeff's brothers both live out of state and his sister couldn't come, it was just us and his parents. Which is, well, not all that different from any other night since we live together. The kids had fun playing with Gma & Gpa, as usual and Emily insisted on Gma & Gpa sitting down with both of the kids for a picture. She was so excited about it and kept telling me what a good idea she had. Then a couple of days later we drove Gma & Gpa to the airport for their 3 week cruise in Antarctica. It took Jacob a few days to adjust to no one showing up at the bottom of the stairs when he stood at the top and called, but over all we've adjusted ok to having the house to ourselves. It's been a good trial run for what it'll be like in March when they leave for their mission.

After purchasing our van last November it looked like we were always having a party at our place. We had 6 cars between the 4 drivers. In the past 6 weeks or so Dave has donated his truck, put their smart car up for sale, and we've sold our Altima. We are now down to just 4 cars and hopefully we'll only have two by the end of April. The decision to sell our Altima was quick and unexpected. It was our first car together and we both loved it. It was a very good one and had treated us well. After waiting a few weeks after making our decision, Jeff finally broke down and posted it on KSL. We were anxious to get some cars sold and clear up our driveway, but were surprised when it had sold in less than 2 days. It was bittersweet when we handed the keys off and the new owners drove away. We're grateful for the years we had together and will miss our car, but we're excited to see what's in store for us in the future.

Emily saying goodbye to her car - she actually hugged & kissed it

As previously mentioned in an earlier post, Emily got a new bed. A week before Christmas we packed up her toddler bed and put together a day bed. She was long overdue for a bigger bed we just didn't have much room for one in our other place and hadn't taken the time to get her new one since we've moved. She was so excited for her day bed and has loved sleeping in it. Her 2nd night with it she told me in awe, "Mom! My feet only go to here!" Poor girl. She was so cramped in that toddler bed. Jacob always loved climbing on her old bed and was often found 'messing it up'. We gave each of them a turn saying 'goodbye' to it before we disassembled it for storage. Emily also started dance a couple weeks ago. She does tap and ballet and absolutely loves them both. Miss Julie is all about the girls and just wants them to feel beautiful. Emily wears as much jewelry as I'll let her and a crown every time. She is learning quite a bit and says she likes to be beautiful and wants to be a princess. I got to watch her first lesson and it was so exciting - almost made me want to get up and dance. Miss Julie is a wonderful teacher and I'm so glad Emily is getting this experience. I can't wait to see her recital in June.

Emily is also learning to read right now. She is so good at figuring things out on her own and sounding things out. She is really into spelling things and is always asking us what the string of letters she just said spell. She is getting excited for kindergarten next fall and we can't believe she is already that grown up.

OUR LITTLE MAN IS 13 MONTHS!

Jacob's personality has really started coming out the past few weeks. It is so fun to learn more about him and to see him grow up. He is developing his sense of humor and I just love to hear him laugh and I enjoy finding out the little things that can crack him up - especially when he just appears to be laughing at himself.
Jacob is still very active and has become quite the daredevil. He will climb on anything possible - even if it has wheels. His current joys are walking backwards, spinning in circles, walking with his hands behind his back, throwing things back behind his head, playing with cars - sound effects included, playing with his sister, 'cooking' in the kitchen, looking out our front windows, going on walks, and rubbing his messy hands all over in his hair.
Jacob loves to be big. He wants to do anything and everything his big sister does. He likes to brush his teeth, sit at the table, drink from a straw, feed himself, take his clothes on or off by himself, put shoes on (not just his), and sit at the table or on the couch. He is also understanding a lot more. When the garage is open and his coat is on he'll go right to his side of the van and try to climb in. And he completely understands, "get daddy!" and he says 'mama.'

Jacob is very curious and seems to be constantly getting into something or at least attempting to. For example, the other day he got stuck trying to climb into the lazy susan. He is always going through drawers and cupboards and playing with its contents.

Jacob has cut 3 new teeth - making it a total of 4, with 2 more ready break through any day. He is thoroughly enjoying using them to eat different things and it's fun to watch his excitement. He has gotten better at letting me show them to people and will do the cutest smile when I say, 'show me your teeth.'

We had a special date night on the 14th. Jeff and I doubled with Jacob & Emily and went to Tucanos for dinner. Jacob of course was enthralled with all the fruit and Emily loved everything about it - particularly enjoying the cheese bread. Jeff served his mission in Brazil and is still teaching Emily some Portuguese. So Emily was thrilled to go on a special date to a Brazilian restaurant. We of course all stuffed ourselves and had to practically roll out of the restaurant. We wandered around Gateway for a little bit checking out the fountains and were grateful for the warm fires they had spread throughout. The kids were really cute and it was a fun night.

The next week was pretty busy - just normal everyday life, but I also had two weddings. I was a bit more stressed with the first one for some reason, maybe it was because once it was over I still had so much going on. The second wedding came together really quick and I was really happy with it. I like it when that happens. Emily is of course my right hand man whenever I have flowers to work on - whether I need or want her.
Other than all of the above, the past few weeks we have done a lot of eating, sleeping, shopping, co-oping, emailing, reading, working, cleaning, hugging & kissing, giggling, waiting, planning, hosting, cooking, talking, singing, and learning. Right now I'm hoping for a little bit calmer February.

Christmas & New Year's

Christmas Eve we met at my parents for our annual pizza dinner, blanket tying, and watching a movie. This year Stan, Mel & Heidi were able to join us and we watched Happy Feet while Jacob & Heidi played with toys - Heidi did occasionally look up and start to dance to the music though. After the movie we went home and the kids got to open a present from mom & dad. New Pj's! Emily really liked hers and has worn them every night for 2 weeks. She was also very excited for Santa to come and went to bed fairly easily. Thank heavens. Jeff and I were still in shock that it was already Christmas Eve. Where does the time go?

Christmas morning both kids slept in. I think I may have been more excited then they were. I woke up at 7am and tossed and turned till I finally just gave up and got up and showered. Emily, suprisingly, was the first one awake and got half way down the hall and peeked into the living room before coming into our bedroom. We weren't to happy that she 'went in' without us and were getting ready to lecture her when she said she saw that Santa had brought her a baby. As you can see from pics below- Emily in fact did not get a baby doll, Heidi did.

Jacob's loot- looking at a new book - and playing around with Heidi on the love sac

Emily's loot - the first thing Emily did was see what candy Santa put in her stocking - 2 scrapbook's I made for her

Opening presents with Holbrooks - dressing up in bride dress up she got from daddy

Jacob opening presents- Emily & Heidi checking out the body pillow from Santa (Emily is in love with it)

We spent Christmas day relaxing and hanging out with the Holbrooks - which was kind of hard to avoid since we were all staying in the same house. Dave made yummy crepes for lunch and my parents stopped by for a quick visit. Matthew came too and brought his new nerf gun. The guys all enjoyed it.

Jeff & Emily shooting Matthew's gun

Christmas night we went over to my parents house. We started with presents - Emily got her favorite: Rapunzel and Flynn Rider barbies. We had a yummy dinner and then played our traditional gift card exchange with the adults.

Matthew looking at the football scrapbook I put together - Jeff enjoying the U book from my parents and not thrilled about the BYU sweatshirt from the Laytons

Dinner - making dessert - hanging out - group pic before gift card game

I'm still having a hard time believing that christmas has come and gone. It was a nice one - relaxing and fun to watch the kids. I always enjoy that time of year and I'm already looking forward to the next one so I can play christmas music again.

~

We debated a lot of options for New Year's Eve and I finally decided I was done with parties and I wanted to do something for the kids. So I googled some ideas online and put together our own party. We had pizza and rootbeer, made noise shakers, decorated a tree for new years, played a balloon popping game, hid alarms and phones all over the house and had to find them before the alarms went off, had a scavanger hunt to find 'lost' presents under the tree, and danced the night away on bubble wrap. After ice cream we put Jacob to bed and then let Emily stay up and watch "How to Train Your Dragon" with us. The kids all seemed to have a blast. And a big thank you to Dave and Arline for participating in all our events - even though Arline really doesn't like popping balloons.

Jacob kept walking around with his arms behind his back. We found it hilarious.