Merry Christmas!

Today was a great Christmas! Different, but great! We got up like normal and had our little family Christmas as soon as Holland woke up (please disregard the morning hair Holland is sporting). Santa brought her the Fisher Price Baby Grand Piano. As soon as Holland saw it, she ran to it and began playing. Holland was so excited! After a few minutes of checking out all the fun stuff on the piano, we gave Holland her stocking. She enjoyed looking into it and pulling each item out. Kirk was holding the stocking and told Holland there was more in there, and Holland said, "I see it."

Holland did great at opening gifts. She would tear the wrapping off and even put it all in the trash box. Maybe she will be a neat freak like me!?! :D

Holland loves all the animals in her A to Z Learning Zoo!

Holland made out like a bandit this Christmas. She got her piano, a Koala Zoobie, Crayola TaDoodles, A to Z Learning Zoo, clothes, pajamas, and the polar bear Planet Earth DVD and toy. We didn't get to see Kirk's parents this Christmas, so in the mail from them, Holland got a Barbie laptop (which she loves to say and play with) and clothes. After we had our Christmas, Kirk went out to help the family some since the roads were so bad. Once he got back, we went over to my Mom's house for Christmas. Mom got Holland clothes and pajamas, books, and money in her savings account. Mom got all three of us (Kate, Kirk, and me) a Dell Netbook, a USB video camera, a Blu-ray player, Wii games, Blu-ray movies, and a Roku (which plays On Demand Netflix and Amazon movies). I got a new winter coat and Kirk got an electric razor. Mom also got us a Tassimo drink station! I've been wanting one of those forever! I've already made me a latte. Love it! After Mom's Christmas, we shoveled snow at her house, Mommer's house, and then finally at our house. Kirk went in to work and Holland and I drove out to Mommer's. I set the table for tomorrow's Christmas dinner since we postponed it one night due to the roads. Time to go to bed..................

Merry Christmas!

White Christmas Eve!!!

It was so wonderful to wake up to snow falling this morning. Even though we didn't do much today, it was a great day. I made homemade pumpkin bread, chicken and dumplings, sausage balls, and snow ice cream! Kirk had never had snow ice cream before. I'm glad he really enjoyed it. We got at least 10 inches of snow, and I would not be shocked if it was 12 inches. We have snow drifts 2-3 feet deep and in some areas the snow was up to mid-thigh on me. Kirk went to check and feed the cattle. He left around 2:30 and didn't get back until after 7. He pulled out a lot of people's stuck vehicles. Kirk fed the cattle hay and cattle cake and the cattle were all huddled up in the pens for cover. I waited until the snow and wind quit blowing before I took Holland out into the snow. I think it finally stopped around 4:30, so I got dressed, and got Holland ready. She was really excited all bundled up to go outside in the snow.


Once we went out on the front porch, she ate a little snow and checked out all the white stuff.

Our front porch is a 1 foot step up from ground level and the snow was over 1 foot taller than the front porch. With that scaring Holland and me, we went to the back yard to walk around in the shallower snow close to the back patio. Holland did good and liked walking around until it got too deep for her and then she fell down. She did good and got herself up, but then wanted Mama to hold her. :)

Before we put Holland to bed, we got online and checked out the NORAD Santa Tracker. Holland saw that Santa was in Brazil and on his way north. She kept on saying, "Santa, Santa, Santa." She got really excited when I told her Santa was coming to visit tonight.

It is a tradition in my family that we say "Christmas Eve Gift" on this day. It started generations ago with Mommer's family. So.........

Christmas Eve Gift!!!!!!

18 months old

Holland turned 18 months on the 19th. We had her 18 month doctors appointment today and Holland did good. She weighed in at 28 pounds and 2 ounces and was a little over 34 inches tall. Those stats put Holland in the 99% for height and 90% for weight. Go Holland! We didn't get any shots this time. Holland only has 2 more vaccines to get, Hepatitis and MMR. We decided to wait to get those vaccines because we got Holland vaccinated for regular flu and H1N1 flu. That was a total of 4 flu shots for Holland. Poor girl! We figured she had received enough vaccines for the past 2 months. Dr. Mike said it was perfectly fine to wait until Holland is 24 months old for the last 2 vaccines. Holland said "good girl" during the doctors appointment and Dr. Mike asked if she was starting to put 2 words together. Kirk and I laughed and said, she's been doing that since she was 13 months. She is already putting several words together to make some simple sentences and questions. Dr. Mike said that is awesome. He also said, she is doing great!

We had Holland's 18 month photos with Dixie in Holland's two Christmas dresses. Holland had fun. She danced, played with bubbles, and ate cookies. We love Dixie! She is so great to us and does such a fabulous job! Here are 2 of the portraits Dixie did. You can also see them larger at this site: http://wwwdixie.blogspot.com/

Fantasy of Lights!

We took Holland for her first time to MSU's Fantasy of Lights tonight. She had a pretty good time. It wasn't too cold and we walked around the whole time. I think she was just so overwhelmed that she couldn't take it all in. There was way too much to look at. Here are a few shots I got with my new camera.

6th Anniversary

Today is our 6th wedding anniversary and Kirk got me the best camera. I'm so excited about it! It's a Canon EOS Rebel T1i Kit. It takes 15.1 mega pixel pictures, does 3.4 frames per second, and also records videos. It's so advanced. I'll probably be figuring out features on it for years. We went to church this morning and Holland wore one of her new Christmas dresses. We figured that we pay for these dresses, might as well wear them more than once, right? Holland behaved so great in church today! She sat with us the whole church service including communion and didn't get fussy or have any problems. We were so proud of her. Here is Holland after church down in the fellowship hall.

Later today, we went over to Mom's house for Kate's graduation party. She had a great party and a lot of family and friends came to celebrate. We are so proud of Kate and her accomplishments.

Dr. Katherine Ridinger!!!

My sister, Kate, graduated Friday from Texas A&M. She was hooded for her PhD in BioChemistry. So awesome! We had a great trip. Drove down on Friday, had Freebirds burritos, and went to the graduation ceremony at 7pm. Dr. Kate will now continue at A&M doing post-doc research and teaching classes. Congrats Dr. Ridinger!!!!!

Gig 'em Aggies!!!!

Dancing down to A&M

We drove down to Texas A&M to see my sister, Kate, graduate yesterday. Holland was still a little sick, but she did really good on the drive down. She danced to all the music we listened to. She had fun!

Holland's 1st time to be sick

Yesterday we noticed Holland's voice was a little deeper, she was coughing, and had a raspy sound to her lungs. We decided to take her in to the doctor's office this morning to sick time. Kirk went in to work with Cousin Clayton at his UPS Store and Holland and I were at the doctor's office by 8:30am. We got there, checked in, and found a seat. Once I let her stand up, she coughed, burped, and then threw up all of her breakfast! Holland has NEVER thrown up anything. I think maybe one time she spit up as a baby, but that was it. Then today she proceeded to throw up all of her breakfast in the waiting room of the doctor's office. I had no idea what to do! All of the other moms were looking at me in horror and all I could say was, "I'm so sorry, she's almost 18 months and has never thrown up and I don't know what to do." The moms felt sorry for me and several went and got paper towels, handed me tissues, and I got out my wipes and proceeded to clean Holland, the floor, and then myself up. It was mortifying. I called Kirk and asked him to come help me. I didn't know if Holland was going to throw up again or what was going to happen next. I was just waiting for another first, the drizzles. She has never had diarrhea, so who knows when that first time will be. Kirk, being the good Dad he is, came right over to the clinic and waited with smelly Holland and me to see the doctor. Oh, and talk about smell! I will not describe - yuck. We got in to see Dr. A and he listened to Holland's breathing and we told him about her throwing up. He said the throwing up was just a crazy thing that happens when kids cough really hard and burp together. No biggie, her tummy is fine. He then said that Holland has croup. He gave her 3 days worth of steroids and some cough/decongestant syrup. So, needless to say, it's been a bad day so far. Then, we go to our pharmacy and of course, it's going to take over an hour to fill the prescriptions. We do a couple of errands, all the meanwhile, I can smell that awful smell on myself and Holland. Ewww......... We finally get Holland's medicine, go home, I give Holland both prescriptions, change my clothes, and bathe her. I was able to get her to eat some chicken noodle soup and some crackers throughout the day. She took a good long nap as shown in picture below. She was wiped out and as soon as I laid the blanket and pillow down, she immediately wanted to lay down and had to have her favorite stuffed animals. I hope she sleeps well tonight. So far the medicines have given her a lot of crazy energy.

I just hate that Holland's sick. I do not know how parents go through this. It's miserable watching your child suffer and feel bad. I'm just so grateful Holland was able to get to about 18 months old before getting sick for the first time. We are very blessed she hasn't been sick with anything else. And it appears we caught this early on. I pray she feels better tomorrow and will be back to normal as soon as possible.

Child labor laws do not apply in our house

Kirk titled this one. I wanted to call it, "our little helper." Here is Holland helping put up the clean silverware from the dishwasher. She catches on so fast, in that, she knows exactly what drawer things go in. Silverware in the drawer under the microwave and cooking utensils in either my carousel thing or drawer beside stove. Holland will also get plates, bowls, etc and hand to me to put up. Once the dishwasher is all empty, she will push in the shelves and shut the door. It's great that she wants to help so much. I hope Holland is this helpful when she is 10. :)

Christmas Candy

Every year we all go out to Mommer's house right around her birthday to make Christmas candy. This year was fun having Holland there and watching her dance with the dancing Santa. :) We made rum balls, rice krispies, ritz bit sandwiches dipped in white chocolate, peanut butter balls, and indoors smores. Mommer made her date loaf before we all got there. Tomorrow the fudge and divinity will be made. We have so much fun making candy and enjoying the time together.



Clayton even wanted to help Kristy with the indoors smores!

The candy! We split it between everyone and went home to rest.

Elf on the Shelf

I had heard about this from a cousin and wanted to go ahead and start this Christmas tradition this year with Holland. It's such a wonderful tradition to teach children that someone is always watching them and that they need to behave. Our little elf has fair skin, brown hair, and blue eyes! Too cute! I'm thinking we might let Holland name him next year or whenever she can come up with a name. We will see. Holland absolutely loved the book and couldn't wait to get her hands on it. She immediately laid down and started looking through all the pages.

Our little reader

Holland loves to read anything and everything. Granted she isn't really reading, but she enjoys looking at everything, turning pages, and looking like an adult reading. Here she is chilling out on the couch in her pajamas the other night before bed time. Just love the crossed feet!

Holland's Nativity Advent Calendar

We got Holland a really neat Advent calendar that she can use every year. It has an individual piece of the Nativity scene in each day pouch. Every day, Holland will pull out that day's piece and place it on the Nativity scene above the pouches. So cute! It hangs up, but we got it down on the floor for Holland to place today's piece. We are explaining what each piece is, which probably won't sink in just yet, but we are still trying to teach her. Here is Holland pulling out today's piece and placing it on the Nativity scene.

Happy Thanksgiving!

This morning Kirk and I asked Holland to say "Happy Turkey Day," and she did it on the first try! She would also say, "gobble gobble" a couple of times for us. We hung out at home and then went over to my Mom's for supper. We had a good time and Holland loved pumpkin pie, or as she would call it, "punkie pie".

After we ate, it was time to watch Texas A&M play Univ of Texas. Go Aggies! Here's Holland with her second cousin, Teagan, both rooting for their favorite teams. :)

Touchdown Aggies!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Our little elf

This holiday season has been so much fun with Holland. She wants to help and is so curious. I wanted to decorate the weekend before Thanksgiving this year to get the tree up and done with early. Holland was a little apprehensive at first when we just had the tree up. She was scared to walk by it without us, so she would crawl to get by it. It was so cute. The next day we started putting ornaments on the tree and Holland loved it! She would pull out an ornament, bring it to us, and then go get another one. Once the ornaments were on the tree, she was mesmerized and wanted to point out every Santa and ball.

I think my Mom has the most beautiful tree, and I know my tree will never be as pretty. But here is the finished product. I'm missing the tree skirt because our cat will lay on it and tear it up if we put it down.

Fall portraits

We met up with Dixie yesterday for our family fall portraits. It was fun until Holland got cranky because it was nap time. We fed the ducks and geese, and Holland had a fun time watching them. Here are a couple of Dixie's shots she got.

These were so much fun! Thanks Dixie - you are the best!

Happy Halloween!

Today was a very busy day. We met up with Dixie for our Fall Portraits at Lucy Park. Afterwards, we had Trunk-or-Treat at our church. Holland had a lot of fun there trick-or-treating for the first time. She can only say "tre tre" for trick or treat. :) Once we left the church, we went over to Mommer's house and then to 2 neighbors and that was it. We were pooped! Holland dressed up as a tulip this year. She was a cutie!

Happy Halloween!!!

1st time to pumpkin patch

Kirk and I took Holland to a pumpkin patch in town today. She had so much fun that she got a little fussy when we had to leave. She would pat each pumpkin and call it "punkie". It was hard to get pictures of her because she was running around everywhere, would punkie pat each pumpkin, and try to carry several of the pumpkins away. After we left the pumpkin patch, we went and looked at some new bedroom furniture and ate lunch at Olive Garden. It was a fun day in town.

Holland picked out her own pumpkin and helped carry it to the car.