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.