He's home!

Kirk was gone this past week for training and it was insane not having him home. He typically has Holland duty in the am, since I'm gone before either of them get up. I fed cattle and took care of Piwi while he was gone, too. One good thing is Piwi minds me very well now. I'm doing much better at giving commands in czech. I don't do great at staying home alone or with Holland. I feel much safer when Kirk is home with us. This week there was a rash of break ins in our area and of course, I went nuts trying to protect our house. Needlesstosay, I'm so grateful Kirk is back home and we all feel so much safer now.

20 months old

Holland turned 20 months old yesterday. WOW!!! She is learning and doing so much these days. She knows every particle of clothing, takes off her own clothes, and is repeating everything we say. Holland even said spaghetti today. She says "I love you" to us, and when we ask her "can I have a hug or kiss?" she will hug/kiss us. Too cute!!! Holland has been showing affection for a few months now, but I keep forgetting to post it. When I come home from work, I take off my shoes and she will put them in my closet and shut the closet door. Then, she will go get my hair brush and hair clip for me to put my hair up. Holland has my routine down as good as I do! She loves my Blackberry smartphone. As soon as she sees it, she hollers out "baby!" I have her picture as my background and she loves to see it and kiss the screen. She has figured out what all the rollerball does and pretends to be texting and scrolling through stuff. It's hilarious! Holland is much better at self feeding and is now using the sippy cups for 2 year olds that don't have the spout or straw in them. Since she knows her shapes and a few numbers, we have been working more on counting and colors. She can pick out red, blue, purple, yellow, and of course pink! She can say all the colors. Holland knows 1 through 3, so we've been working on 4 and 5. She's almost got them down. As for potty training, we didn't want to push her. We figure it will click sometime for her. A couple of weeks ago, she said she needed to go potty so we went and she did her business on the potty. I was so proud! I'm hoping over Spring Break when I'm home all week, we can really work hard on potty training.

During Spring Break we are going to set up Holland's new bedroom. We are going to buy a full size bed sometime soon. I've already bought the paint and the bedding. I can't wait to get it all set up! We haven't decided if we will move her to the new bedroom during Spring Break or wait until she's 2 this June. Only 4 months left until she's 2! I better start working on Holland's birthday party!!! :)

We took Holland to Parkway Grill for supper tonight and then shopping for Spring/Summer clothes. She had fun! Here is Holland at Parkway Grill.

Holland had so much fun shopping! She picked out clothes, shoes, and her Easter dress. I think we created a monster!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Over a week ago, we dog sat for my Mom. Her dog, Pru, got sick and was put in hospital. A few days later, our Chihuahua, Precious, was put in the hospital with the infection. Then, after 4 more days, our K9 dog, Piwi, was put in the hospital. Precious ended up being in the hospital for 7 days and Piwi for 3 days with a nasty GI infection. We finally got them home yesterday. They both seem to be doing much better and are very happy to be home. A big thank you to Dr. Gibson for taking such good care of our doggies!

Last night, Kirk and I finally had a date night. I think the last time we went out was our anniversary over 2 years ago. Gaga babysat for us and we met up with JB, Josh, and Suzie to go watch the movie, Valentine's Day. We all had a great time and really enjoyed the movie. It was so funny!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Super Bowl Weekend

We really only go to the Super Bowl party for the friends and food. This year, Holland had a good time since she could run around with the other little girls. The girls were teaching Holland colors and animals, and she loved all the attention. Unfortunately.............. I just deleted all the Super Bowl party pictures off of my camera after I had thought they had downloaded to the computer. Apparently, this camera is smarter than me.

Friday night we went to dinner at Applebee's with some good friends, Josh and JB. Holland behaved pretty good and actually ate the food we ordered her. Here is Holland stylin' in my sunglasses before we got to town.

Holland update

Good news!!! We have Holland's spot reserved at Wichita Christian School for the 2010-2011 school year. She will begin in their 2 year old program that only meets 2 days a week. She will attend prayer time, learn bible verses, and also have instructional time. We are really excited about her attending a good Christian school.

We have subscribed to some magazines and books for Holland and her Animal Baby came in last week and Holland was so excited to receive it. I gave it to her and told her to go sit in her chair and read it. She ran over to her rocking chair, opened the book, and started going through every page. This month's new animal is the groundhog since it is for February. She loves to see the groundhog. The Klein Family sent Holland some learning books in the mail and we are so excited to start using them. These books will teach Holland short and long vowels. Thank you Klein Family!! :)

Friday we had a bad weather day due to the ice and snow our area received. We stayed indoors and just hung out. I got out my Netbook (Thank you Mom!) and Holland had to sit by me with her Barbie laptop. We look hard at work. :D

Here is Holland shaking our Tassimo Drink Station pods and her tushy. Too funny!

Shake it!

For all of those who love to see Holland shake a tail feather, here are some new moves. We watched the Hope For Haiti Now telethon on Friday night and Holland got into the dancing spirit when the music would start.

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.