Hello world! Here is Holtz, who is very proud to be a pilot like his Uncle Mikey! This shirt is a riot!
We've been enjoying the early warmer weather. Holtz got a tricycle from Santa for Christmas and on Jan. 6th, we went out for Holtz's first tricycle ride! He did great! It was nice that we could do it so early in the year, and didn't have to wear a heavy coat to be warm enough. This season is crazy- it's been so pleasant outside.
Grammie came in town a day earlier than Holtz's 2nd birthday party and was able to join us for lunch at school with Grace. Evan, Holtz and I try to go every other week (on pizza day, of course)!
Holtz's 2nd birthday was a football theme. He is obsessed with football so it was perfect!
The best present of all was from the Milhollands- they gave Holtz a drum set! They, of course, were thinking it was going to be the most annoying thing- ha ha- but it really wasn't too bad. The party got very loud after Evan set it up. All of the kids rocked out-
Here is Holtz with his buddy Lauren. Holtz loves to have her over to play and read books.
Grace is starting now to practice for her spring ballet performance. She will be dancing in The Sorcerer's Apprentice & Other Tales: Peter & The Wolf and Mother Goose Adventures. She will be dancing to Rain Rain Go Away during the Mother Goose Adventures. It looks really cute from what I've seen in rehearsals. If you want to come, her performance is at The Lexington Opera House on May 3rd, at 7:00pm. She is gaga about ballet now since she took part in the Nutcracker last December, She is constantly twirling, leaping, etc. all over the house.
Evan's cake for his 43rd b-day. For his birthday, we (with some of our friends) went to Comedy Off Broadway here in town to see Craig Shoemaker. We had the BEST time! Shoemaker is hilarious. Evan ordered the tickets on-line and put a note that read something like, "it is my husband's birthday- sit us up front." Such a nerd...we were put right in the front though.
Holtz got a toy vacuum for Christmas and loved it so much, we figured we'd get him a real vacuum! (grin). He and Grace love to use it and vacuum about every other day. Yay for this!
Graces started taking private swim lessons from a student, named Chelsea, at Transylvania University. She is so much more confident in the water now.
I took Grace to see Disney Live at Rupp Arena on February 19th with our neighbor's Savannah (Grace's buddy) and her mom Dana. It was fabulous!
We have been hoping for a good snowfall since we didn't get to sled at all last year. Well, on March 5th, we got it! It snowed 6 inches in one night here. School was cancelled (heck, everything was cancelled)! Evan took off a couple of hours in the morning and we went across the street behind the school to go sledding! It was sooooo much fun. We couldn't wait to go sledding until after Evan was off work because it was supposed to warm up to the 60's that day so we had to take advantage of it while it was here! This picture of Ralph, I took in our back yard. He loves playing in the snow. (I love this picture of him- such a sweetie)
This is Holtz, Grace and in the back Savannah. This is such a great picture- if you click on it, I think you can make it bigger. It was so great sledding because we had tons of snow but temperature-wise, it was pleasant out. Made for a slushy bottom of the hill but was perfect because we could stay out for a long time!
Evan helped the kids make a snow girl in our back yard. Is it summer yet??
Hot cocoa after sledding- ha ha ha!
Oh my goodness- it has happened! The tooth fairy has been to our house! Grace lost her first tooth on March 11th!
Her very fancy tooth fairy box made by her Mimi (Evan's mom). Isn't it beautiful? The tooth fairy must have thought that losing her first tooth was special because she got $5 worth of quarters in her box! They just barely fit!
I wish all of you could be here when the pear trees bloom throughout our neighborhood. They bloomed about 3 weeks early this year. The pictures really don't show just how beautiful they are. It's like they are snow covered when it is 60-70 degrees outside. A warm winter wonderland- just stunning!
Grace has had an exciting couple of months. I took Grace to her ENT (Dr. VanMetre) to follow-up regarding her hearing...or lack there of. I don't know if you remember but since she was little, she's had conductive hearing loss. She kept getting water behind her eardrum (off and on) so everything that she was hearing sounded like she was underwater. We opted not to put tubes in her ears because she wasn't having repeated ear infections and she was supposed to outgrow this issue. Well, she has never really outgrown it. At her appt, the ENT looked at her tonsils and said they were large! He said if her tonsils were that large, then her adenoids were more than likely large too. This explained a lot! (She is a mouth breather, snores, ears not draining, very tired all of the time- not getting good sleep at night, etc). So...Grace had her tonsils and adenoids removed on March 29th (the Thursday before Spring Break). She did so well. After the surgery, the nurse told us that usually the kids stay out until 20-30 minutes after being taken out of the operating room...well, Grace woke up while they were wheeling her out- thank goodness she didn't wake up 10 mins before! Her first couple of days she did really well, didn't even need much pain medication. Now though, I am giving her pain meds every 4-5 hours around the clock to keep her comfortable. She's lost about 2 pounds (that a lot for such a little girl) but now is slowly gaining it back! She's been watching lots of movies, eating lots of popsicles and her favorite rainbow sherbet. She's started eating some softer foods too (cereal, mac and cheese, cottage cheese, peanut butter sandwich, etc.) She is having some throat pain but the majority of her pain is her ears. Her voice sounds a little like she's on helium :) Her gown (below) was huge so Grace had her arms tucked in and pretended like it was a blanket.
I get this magazine from Lowes in the mail and in it was this project...an outdoor chalkboard! It's incredible! Even though Grace had her tonsils out, we have been trying to get outside for 20 mins or more a day (except the first two days). It really seems to help her feel better.
Now, quick stories about the kids. I know it's hard to believe from this sweet picture below but Grace has become quite the tattle-tale. We used to always say under our breath, "Nobody likes a tattle-tale except us" but Grace has taken it to extremism now. Poor Holtz has no chance around her. Also, Grace's idea of sharing these days is, if she wants something from Holtz, it's her turn and if he doesn't give it to her right then and there then he isn't sharing- and she is soooo dramatic! Oh my! She's reading so well now and loves to read by herself, to her dolls, and to Holtz (she's actually reading to Holtz right now- cute, cute, cute).
Holtz is still going potty on the potty off and on. I'm not pushing anything still- if he wants to go, great, if not, I'm not losing sleep over it. He did go 'stinky' one time on the potty- on his 2nd birthday but nothing since. Wonder if it scared him? Ha! Holtz is very polite now, always saying please and 'ank yume' (aka thank you).
This pic below shows off Holtz's unfortunate goose egg in between his eyes (actually looks a lot worse now). Grace 'accidentally' hit him right in between his eyes with a baseball bat- dang! Thank goodness it was plastic. This pic also shows off my very first little boy haircut- thank you Google for the tips on how to cut hair! Looks pretty good to me!
On Dec. 29th of last year, on our way home from our trip to FL, Evan and I were lucky enough to get 4th row 50 yard line seats to the Notre Dame vs. Florida State bowl game in Orlando (thank you stubhub.com). Although about 90% of the stadium was wearing red and chanting the tomahawk chant (so annoying- with their tomahawk arms) and the fact that we lost, it was an absolutely incredible experience! Earlier this year we went to see Van Halen (Feb. 18) and Jimmy Buffett (March 3) with our neighbors (Dana and Chris) at the YUM Center in Louisville. Van Halen absolutely (surprisingly) rocked while Buffett was kind-of a dud. We've been to lots of amazing Buffett concerts so I imagine it was because it was indoors- was really weird. We just got tickets to his concert in Cinci at Riverbend for August 2nd so we'll give it another shot.
We are so proud to live in Lexington and have enjoyed cheering on our the Kentucky Wildcats Men's Basketball Team. National Champions- woo hoo. I'll tell you, I know Notre Dame fans are die hard and crazy- I would say Cats fans rank equally as nutso.
Last but not least, I completed my CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) training last week. I know a lot of you probably think it's geeky but I had so much fun taking the course. It was nice to get out of the house and I met some really special people (one who just lives down the street- small world)! The kids and I got to meet the firefighters who are in our district and we are hoping after Grace feels better to take a field trip to the fire station. Here is a link to pictures from our final simulation- a tornado went through town-
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lexkyem/sets/72157629689544137/ I swear they picked the biggest people to rescue- all of America needs to go on a diet! I signed up, with some of my CERT classmates for the CFA (Community Fire Academy) course in August. I actually am going to be certified in CPR during that course- fun!
This has been a lot but I think I am finally caught up. Whew! Hope you enjoyed the pictures!
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