Our Christmas gift

We finally have our Christmas gift done! Finally! We got a new bedroom suit, bedding, and new decor to match it all. The furniture was in around Thanksgiving, the bedding was in a couple of weekends ago, and I finally got the bedroom painted this weekend. We still need to put up the crown molding, get new lamps, and order the window treatments. I'm so glad to have the majority of the changes done. Our bedroom suit is so great. The chest, dresser, and night stands all have marble tops so we won't leave drink rings or scratches.

19 months old

Holland is 19 months old today. The time goes by faster and faster as she gets older. She is still doing great. Holland can name all of the body parts and features of the face. She has been doing 2 step commands for months now, like picking up something and putting it in the trash. Holland helps with laundry and dishes. She will even pick up her toys and move them out of the way when we vacuum the living room. Holland is talking so much. Today she said, "let's go home and see Precious and kitty cat." I was amazed she put that many words together. Typically every sentence anyone says, she will say at least 1-2 words of that sentence as well. She can pick out and name over 75 animals. She can even pick out and say jaguar and iguana! Holland brushes her own teeth and is self feeding. For 4 months now, in the evenings when it's bath time, she uses her potty chair. We are just waiting for it to click for her to know when she's got to go to the bathroom and then we will be potty trained. Holland knows what hot and cold is and loves to tell us what is hot and cold. :) Most importantly.......... she is still dancing! Right now, anytime the new Cadillac or Lincoln commercials come on, no matter where she is in the house, she will go running into the living room and dance. She will even say, "shake it! shake it!" while dancing. Holland is great at entertaining herself. She will get a book or her Barbie laptop (Thank you Pepsi and Paw-Paw for the laptop), climb up on the couch, and read or play.

Andrew's baptism

Cousin Catherine and Danny's son, Andrew, was baptized this morning. We are very honored that Catherine and Danny asked Kirk and I to be their son's baptismal sponsors. The church service was beautiful and Catherine's family hosted a luncheon immediately after church.

We worked with Holland all week with saying Andrew and she did great. She would see baby Andrew and call out his name. Holland is really good with babies. She will get close enough to see them but never touches them. She just looks at them, smiles, and says baby.

New Holland stuff

Holland is learning and growing every day. She says new words and does new things all the time. She can now pick out different shapes. Holland can pick out and say square, circle, star, plus, and triangle. She can also say and pick out the numbers 1, 2, and 3.

We finally have started giving her the fun stuff kids enjoy, like powdered donuts. She loved them!

Holland's bangs were in her eyes and driving all of us crazy Saturday, so I trimmed them. She wasn't a big fan until she realized what I was cutting and then after the bangs were out of her eyes, she was cool with it.

Happy Birthday Kirk!!

Today is Kirk's birthday. Lucky for us, he is off work so we went to Duncan, OK to shop and eat dinner. We never get to go out to dinner for anything, let alone on our birthdays. So this year, I wanted to make sure we did something on Kirk's day. We went to Murf's Guns and bought Kirk some Oakleys. Then, went to dinner at Don Jose. We had a great time and Holland enjoyed the time out and about. She behaved the whole time and was so friendly saying hi to everyone in the restaurant. We need to do this more often............. if we only had the time.

Happy Birthday Kirk!!! We Love You!!!

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.