Happy Birthday, Bana!

Yesterday was Tom's mom's birthday. I think it is funny that Ellie still calls her Bana. It all started when she was like 2 and she thought when we called my MIL Nana, we meant banana and bana is how Ellie used to say banana. Fascinating, I know. But I just didn't want you to think it was a typo every time I wrote Bana...how embarrassing.

So, yes, we went over to my mother-in-law's house to celebrate. Even though it was her birthday, Bana had a belated birthday present for me. A Snuggie! I have been hinting around for one forever, but never seem to get it. I think Tom just deemed them too dorky to buy, but whatever, they are AWESOME! I fell asleep all snuggled up in mine on the recliner last night as we were watching Psych. When Tom woke me up to go to bed, I briefly considered just spending the night in mine because that is how comfortable they are, but I realized it is just a short step from wearing one of those to wearing a muumuu full time.

Christmas 2010

I am FINALLY getting around to typing up my Christmas recap. We had a lot of fun, but I am sure it makes for a boring read. I just need to get it in for journaling purposes. Feel free to ignore all those words and just look at the pictures (by the way, I am typing this on our new laptop...no more computer shutdowns midblog for me!).

Christmas Eve:
Just like last year, we spent Christmas Eve at Mark and Rosie's house. My oldest sister, Jeannine, drove down from Idaho with her husband and three kids to join in on the fun (plus, they are doing the marathon New Year's Day with all the other crazies in my family). The kids had fun decorating Christmas cookies and playing with each other.

My favorite part of Christmas Eve is the reliving the traditions from my childhood. The kids acted out the birth of Jesus as my dad narrated from the Bible. I love that I can sit back and watch instead of playing a character. Ellie was a wise man this year.

Next, my Dad told "A Pack for Santa's Back." It's a story he has been telling every Christmas for as long as I can remember. Ellie was completely captivated by it this year.

Finally, we enjoyed Jesus' birthday cake (once again Mark refused to let us sing Happy Birthday to Jesus because he thinks it is too weird). Tom and I couldn't stay too late because we knew that we still had to put together Ellie's Santa gift...a 5 foot tall dollhouse. So, we put the kids in their pajamas and headed for home.Christmas Day:

Ellie slept on the floor of our bedroom so that she wouldn't walk across the house in the morning and discover Santa's gifts without us. (Side Note: Do y'all wrap the gifts from Santa? It is my firm belief that Santa does not wrap presents, but merely places them in front of the tree to await discovery. Tom seems to think Santa wraps presents. Weirdo.) Anyway, I went and got Jack from his crib and we ventured out into the living room. Ellie was so excited when she saw her (unwrapped) dollhouse. Jack promptly tried to climb it.

After the kids played for awhile and Jack took a nap, we headed over to my mother-in-law's house. On the way there, Ellie was lamenting how Santa forgot to bring her the walking dog she so wanted. Then she informed me that maybe Nana bought it for her because Nana gets her whatever she wants.

So, the kids started opening their never-ending pile of gifts. Ellie got some great toys, but I could tell by the way she was tossing them aside that she was still hoping for that "walking dog." Finally, all the gifts were unwrapped and the dog was not to be found. Then, Nana announced that she thought Santa might have left a present in the bedroom closet. Oh my gosh, I have never seen Ellie so excited. She was literally bouncing up and down while Tom removed it from its packaging.

We drove Tom's new Jeep that day and I really did not think we would be able to fit all those presents in the car. It was a tight squeeze, but we made it work.

Christmas Day After:

On the 26th, we all got dressed up for church.I'm not sure how thrilled Tom was about it. After church, we went over to my father-in-law's house for one final farewell to Christmas. We had a great time visiting, but I was too busy keeping Jack out of the cupboards to take a single picture of the night!

Seriously, Jack is into EVERYTHING these days. He is such a handful. I swear, I count down the minutes until it is time to put him to bed. But then once he is in bed, I start missing him and feel this strange urge to go get him out of his crib. He is just so darn cute.

Anyway, our Christmas was fun and best of all...filled with lots of family.

Vacation, Christmas Card Failure, and Jeep!

We are officially on Christmas vacation here at Casa de Holly. One of the few perks of being a teacher is we get a good 2 weeks off for the holiday. We kicked it off by going to Ellie's school on Friday for her little Christmas party (although I think they called it a more PC term). The kids were reading a Christmas story and most of the kids read their parts all monotone and quiet. Not my girl. She was loud and clear with lots of expression. Not to be all McBraggy, but she totally stole the show.Saturday, I made one more last-ditch effort to get a Christmas Card-worthy pic of the kids. Jack was not cooperating. I made do, but for those of you getting cards from me this year...sorry they suck.
Sunday, I dressed the kids up all shmancy-fancy for church only to find out that they are doing their Christmas program next Sunday.

Yesterday, we were bad parents and took the kids to daycare even though we had the day off. Tom wanted to go Jeep shopping. He has been driving the same car since before we even got engaged (about 10 years ago) and it was starting to have major issues. We spent about 4 hours at the dealership before getting the deal we wanted. Tom is now more than happy to go run errands for me and take the kids places in his new Jeep Wrangler. I really hope the newness doesn't wear off any time soon.

Weekend recap: A REAL reindeer edition

On Saturday, I was feeling a little stir-crazy so I decided to take the kids to the library. After the library, the weather felt so nice so we headed over to the park at the new master-panned community up the road. When we arrived, I noticed they were setting up for some big event. Then, I saw Santa, some elves, and a REAL reindeer!

Tangent: A few years ago I was watching a cheesy Christmas movie with Sabrina and I commented on how real the reindeer looked. Sabrina gave me a funny look and asked, "You do know there is such thing as reindeer, right?" Uh, no, I didn't. When I learned that Santa wasn't real, I assumed that meant reindeer, too, and so I categorized reindeer with things like unicorns and dragons and the loch ness monster. So because I only recently discovered the realness of reindeer, I was EXTREMELY excited to see one at the park. Even if it was missing one antler.

Back to my story, I had left my cell phone at home so I couldn't call Tom to come to the park and bring my camera and phone. I went into the clubhouse to see if they had a phone I could use. No one was at the front desk so in my excitement I went ahead and reached behind the desk to make a quick, whispered phone call to Tom. He was taking a nap and a little grumpy so I just told him to forget it. Then, I saw more people arriving and realized that a line was forming to take pictures with Santa and the real reindeer! I quickly got in line, but the thought of not having a camera to capture this moment (and thus blog about it) was making me crazy! So, I went waaaay out of my comfort zone and asked the lady behind me if I could use her cell phone. I then placed another frantic call to Tom (to his credit, he was already on his way over with cell phone and camera in hand). Tom pulled up right as it was our turn for Santa so I rushed a few pics and then went to explore the rest of the festival.

They had balloon artists, face painting, train rides, cookie decorating, "real" snow, a bouncer, and lots of crafts. And everything was free!

We wandered over to the face painting and balloon making tent. Ellie had a the balloon lady/elf make her a flower (which I somehow lost) and she made Jack a turtle (which I also managed to lose).

Then, we did the train ride and I called Dianna and ordered her to get over to the park ASAP. While waiting for Di and Kinleigh to arrive, I took the kids over to the clubhouse for crafts. We had the whole place to ourself so Ellie was completely doted on by the elves. And Jack ate like 6 cookies and I burned my mouth with hot cocoa.

When Di arrived, we let the kids go play in the snow. We didn't realize they had three different snow areas, seperated by age, and Ellie and Kinleigh had gone into the toddler area. I looked up just in time to see Ellie and Kinleigh simultaneously pelting a 2 year old with snowballs. His mom was not too pleased.

Overall, I was pleased with how our day turned out. Even if we did cancel our plans to go to Lights in the Heights that night. I have always loved Christmas (with a name like Holly, how could I not?), but I love it even more now that I have kids. They make everything more exciting (and exhausting).

Christmas presents for the kiddos

It has been really fun shopping for Ellie's Christmas presents this year because she is so excited about everything. I had decided awhile back that I wanted to get her a dollhouse that is big enough for Barbies. I'm actually a little excited about playing with her!

I found this one online and was lucky enough to grab it on a pretty significant sale during cyberweek. I noticed now that the price has gone back up and it is out of stock online. So, yay me.

Ellie saw a commercial for this walking dog toy and it has remained on the top of her wish list ever since. I keep reminding her that she has a REAL dog that she can play with any time. We aren't buying it for her, but when her Nana babysat, she wrote down everything Ellie asked for and actually went and bought the entire list. Tom tried telling her that just because Ellie asked for it doesn't mean you have to buy it!

As for Jack, we haven't purchased a single thing for the poor kid! He already has so many toys and I have no idea what to get him. It can't be very big because our house is for sale and he are trying to keep the clutter down (although that didn't stop me from buying a gigantic dollhouse that I have no place for). Any suggestions for something small that a one year old will love?

The Sleep Issue

Jack started sleeping through the night fairly early. But then he started teething and later he got sick so his sleep pattern was completely disrupted. At first, all I had to do was go in his room and reinsert his pacifier. Then, I started having to make him a bottle to get him back to sleep. But my dentist brother scared me to death with his stories of baby bottle rot so we switched the bottle of milk with warm water. After awhile, Jack got so he wouldn't go back to sleep until we took him out of bed and rocked him! One night, Tom pointed out that I spoil Jack and I never would have done this with Ellie. So, after many, many, many sleepless nights I decided last week it was time for tough love and I let him cry it out. It was so hard, but so worth it. He has been sleeping solidly though the night this entire week. I was worried if I let him cry he might be more clingy during the day. And he might now feel as loved. But no, he is his normal self...always getting into everything and throwing temper tantrums when he doesn't get his way. Yeah, I am pretty sure he is spoiled. But who could refuse those cheeks?

Ellie, right now

*This is one of those boring posts that are more for my own journaling purposes*

During my conference period today, I went next door to Ellie's preschool for a parent-teacher conference with her teacher. Ellie had U's for almost everything. I forget what the U's stand for, but it is the highest you can get. We went through all the motor skills, social skills, academic skills...etc. She did get a G (for Good, one step lower than the mysterious U) on following clasrrom rules and procedures. She said Ellie is getting better, but she still marches to the beat of her own drum. She also got a G on sounding out words. She knows the sounds of the alphabet, but still isn't reading on her own. The one other G she got was subtraction. She is awesome at addition, but is still working on subtraction.

Ellie's favorite thing right now is the solar system. She keeps asking me to list the planets, but I always miss one and then she corrects me. I can never remember that mnemonic...My Very something Mother Served Us Pizza...something like that. Although I guess I can't say Pluto anymore.

Ms. Tara mentioned how Ellie is getting better at self-correcting. Like, she will say something sassy, but if her teacher gives her a look or says "excuse me," Ellie quickly corrects herself. I have been noticing a lot of improvement with Ellie's attitude at home as well. She is so fun to hang out with and I like going places with her. Plus, she is still super cuddly and loves to snuggle with me. I so love my little girl!

Sunday Best: When did they get so grown-up edition

Weekend recap: Birthday edition

Saturday was my birthday. 32 years. I feel old.


The day started out badly. I was pretty cranky about waking up at 4:50 with Jack. Then, I cooked breakfast for the kids and did some laundry and housework. But, the day quickly improved when I went to lunch with my mom, Sabrina, and Dianna at my favorite little tea room! And since calories don't count on your birthday, Tom and I took the kids out to dinner at Fajita Willie's. I had multiple babysitting offers so we could go out on a date, but Ellie came down with strep throat (AGAIN!) on Friday so I didn't want to risk exposing the other cousins.


That night, I used my birthday powers of persuasion and talked Tom into setting up the Christmas tree. Then, he and Ellie decorated it while I took pictures. I am regretting being so eager to get the tree up because the rest of the weekend was spent keeping Jack away from it.


Sunday morning Tom got up with the kids and picked up breakfast while I slept in. After church, we all went to Sabrina's house to celebrate my and Leilani's birthdays. My mom made homemade chocolate cake and the most delicious chocolate chip cheesecake ever. I got some great gifts (like a Kindle from Tom!) and ended the weekend on a high note.

Giving Thanks: Food, Family, and Pickleball

Our Thanksgiving in pictures. The setting. Leilani made name cards for everyone.
The food was delicious. Mark tried his hand at frying a turkey this year. It was tasty, but I am glad we had regular turkey, too. And ham.

Jack really enjoyed his meal. Even with his swollen, red ear and bruised forehead.

The rain held off long enough to try out Mark's new sport court. It hadn't been painted yet, but Mark taped down lines for pickleball.

Deciding between pickleball or basketball. Tom and I teamed up against Sabrina and Rosie in a rousing match of pickleball. We lost 15-10. I am pretty sure Sabs and Rosie were taking it easy on us.

Once we had sufficiently worked off dinner, we retreated back to the house to sample the assortment of pies. Look how big Ellie's grin is.
I love Thanksgiving!

Really nothing to do with Thanksgiving

Sorry, this isn't going to be an eloquent "I'm thankful for..." post. I'm just doing a bit of stalling this morning before I start cutting fruit and making a casserole (although I am thankful for family who does all the "hard" Thanksgiving cooking and only asks me to bring a fruit salad and green bean casserole).

My vacation officially started yesterday and I decided to still take Jack to daycare so I could have a special day with Ellie. I took her to see Tangled. The plan was to meet up with Dianna and Sabrina and the cousins. I arrived very early and saved 7 seats. The theater filled quickly and people were getting a little disgruntled with me saving all those prime seats. I texted Dianna to get moving, but alas, the movie sold out as she was waiting in line. Poor disappointed cousins! Ellie was really disappointed, too, but she was soon caught up in the film. Which? Was awesome. Seriously, one of the best Disney films since the Aladdin days. After it was over, Ellie kept asking to watch it again.

I really have no segue for this next part, but Jack's earlobe is all red and swollen. I mean really swollen...so swollen it is sticking straight out from the side of his head. He didn't bump it and I don't see bite marks, so I really have no clue what the deal is. But it doesn't seem to bother him in the slightest. He also has this huge bruise on his forehead from his unfortunate tendency to throw himself to the ground when he doesn't get what he wants. Swollen ear, bruised forehead...he looks loved.

Weekend recap: Woe is Me edition

This past weekend was awful! So awful that I documented it with equally awful pictures from my camera phone.

I took a half day on Friday so I could attend Ellie’s Thanksgiving Feast at her school. They put on a little play and sang some cute songs. It was adorable. After the entertainment was over, we went to the feast. I’m talking cold food that had been sitting out all day apparently. My stomach was hurting so I didn’t eat much anyway, but Ellie really enjoyed herself.

Friday evening my mother-in-law came over to watch the kids so Tom and I could have a rare, kid-free night out with friends. We went to this really neat hibachi grill and sushi place that I tried my best to enjoy despite my continuing stomach pains. It was fun hanging out and visiting with friends and we didn’t get home until close to midnight.

Jack woke us up the next morning at 5 am and I was reminded why Tom and I never go out anymore. Tom had the Nike South Regional Meet that day. We had high hopes that his team would place 1st or 2nd and be flown to Portland, Oregon for the National Meet. I would get to go along as a chaperone and basically spend my birthday weekend at an all-expenses paid trip that plays out like a Nike commercial.

Unfortunately, Tom’s team did not do well, but I didn’t even see the race because Ellie was throwing up the whole, entire time. I am talking all over the course. It was bad. She got to the point where she just sat down in the grass and couldn’t move. Luckily, the meet had lots of puke bags available.

We drove the hour and half back home where I made her a bed on my floor next to a bucket (that she dumped over during the night and I didn't notice until I stepped in it!). Unfortunately, I was REALLY sick, too, by this point. Ellie and I spent the whole day and night in my room feeling like we were dying.

Tom was a champ and took over Jack duties for the most part. I was still sick yesterday, but Ellie was completely recovered. When I finally emerged from my room, my house was a TOTAL wreck. I have no energy or motivation to clean it right now so hopefully we won’t get a showing!

And that, my friends, is a very long and “woe is me” description of our weekend. Aren’t you glad you logged in?

Things that are making me smile

Now that Jack is walking, Ellie feels the need to tell everyone, “My baby is walking!” It can be a little embarrassing when she is going up to total strangers in the grocery store to share the good news, but mostly it is just adorable…especially how she refers to Jack as “my baby.”
On the way to school this morning, Ellie was telling me her Christmas wish list. She wants:
1. A doll house with two dolls.
2. A dancing dinosaur (What? The only clarification she could offer was that she didn’t mean a REAL dinosaur, she is talking about a stuffed toy. Um, okay.).
3. A chipmunk on wheels (after further questioning I determined this to be a ZuZu pet).
One of my students who is new to the country likes to tell people, “Don’t be lamp.” I have tried to explain to him that he means “lame,” but he still insists on saying lamp. I don’t know why, but it makes me laugh every time. Especially when I see he has written it on the board as a message to my other classes. Yes, I am sure they will know EXACTLY what he means! Oh, and the message underneath says “Be good to Mrs. today.” This class is very protective of me.

A walking machine

Man, I am terrible about documenting this 2nd child of mine. Around 2 weeks ago he decided to start walking full time. He is so cute doing it, too. He puts both hands in the air and walks with his legs slightly spread out. Tom and I like to imitate him...it always makes us laugh. And maybe someday I will post a picture of it (of Jack walking...not of Tom and I...because that wouldn't be cute).

In which I talk about a lot of unrelated stuff

I am so terrible at blogging these days. Part of the problem is that the computer is in the baby's room so when Jack is asleep I can't get to it, but that is the only time I have to blog! Also, our computer is ghetto. Really. It is embarrassing. The monitor won't turn on until you push the power button on and off about 10 times. And sometimes the whole computer will just decide to shut down randomly...usually when I am doing something that hasn't been saved. Ugh, I hate it. So, we keep saying we are going to buy a laptop, nothing fancy, but every time we get a little money saved up in the laptop fund, one of our cars breaks down and steals the laptop money. Our cars are making me almost as mad as our computer. Within one weeks time we had both cars break down. I happened to be on a very busy road when it happened and I had to dart across several lanes of traffic. Scary!


OK, that is all my complaining for today. Really, I wanted to blog about my weekend because it was fabulous! First off, Tom's team went to the State Cross Country Meet. This is a huge deal. I don't really talk much about Tom on here because, well, he doesn't like it when I do, but I have to brag on him a bit. He is a VERY devoted coach and his team really rocked it this year. They won the Regional Meet...the first time ever that a school from our district has won. So, Dianna and I decided to drive to Austin to cheer on his team at the State Meet. Yep, just me and Di and our four small children taking a road trip. Thank heavens it is only a 2.5 hour drive! Her husband and Tom's brother met us up there so we had quite the cheering squad. Plus, my brother had one of his runners qualify individually so we were able to cheer for her, too. Tom's team took 2nd place (missing 1st by only 3 points) and my brother's runner placed 4th. We represented, y'all.

I took A LOT of pictures this weekend, but haven't had the chance to upload them yet. Thanks, Sabrina, for this pic of the proud coaches! Also, check out Tom's stopwatches. He always wears two and for some reason that just makes me giggle.

We finished the weekend by going to my mother-in-law's Sunday evening to celebrate Tara's birthday. Yep, always a birthday to celebrate around here. It was a fun way to end a busy weekend. Happy birthday, Tara!

Increasing our numbers (and no I am not pregnant)

My little sis recently (as in just this week) moved from North Carolina to Texas (as in a few minutes away). Dianna and I are super close (so close we shared a wedding) so obviously this is exciting for me. But it is also exciting for Ellie because that means the number of cousins she has close by just went up by two (soon to be three). (I know, I know...I need to get out of these parenthesis.)

But, how cool is it that my parents' four youngest kids all live within 15 minutes of each other? And how fun for the younger grandchildren to grow up together!

Yes, I know Halloween was so 3 days ago

I am finally getting around to blogging our Halloween/Fall Festival/Trunk or Treat experience.

Ellie chose to dress up as Cinderella on Friday for the Fall Festival at her school. I am always happy to recycle last year's costume.

Then, she chose to dress up as a "Fairy Godmother" for Saturday's Trunk-or-Treat at church. Really, I thought she looked more like a hip, modern day fairy, but she said she was a fairy godmother so I just went with it. Notice Jack as a jack-o-lantern?

Before they did the Trunk-or-treating, the kids had a carnival of sorts inside. Ellie got her face painted.

Don't let the picture fool you, she loved it. Trunk-or-Treat was fun. It was the first year we participated and Ellie was almost overwhelmed with joy when it came time to go trunk to trunk with her cousins.

As if that wasn't enough, we returned home to find a block party in full swing on our culdesac so we joined in on the fun.

Sunday evening we went to Tara's neighborhood for some trick or treating with lil' Brannon.

This time I stuffed Jack in Ellie's old monkey suit. They look really excited, right?

I think we may have partied too hard because Ellie woke up Monday morning with a nasty case of strep throat and I woke up Tuesday morning with an even nastier stomach bug. I feel like we really stretched Halloween out this year and I am rather glad it is over. I much prefer Thanksgiving and Christmas!