Better together

Just a couple of days ago Samantha told me that she was ready for a break from school (already!) so that we could go to Utah to see our cousins and grandparents again. Then, yesterday Connor carried around a picture of his cousin Blake bacause he said he missed him! We love living in California, but sometimes it's just too far away from our family!

All together on the slide.

Trying to get a picture of all the Young babies!

The girls in their patching PJ shorts they made all by themselves! (Well, with a little help from Grandma Linda!)

The batmans.

Mustache man

Top this boys(and mom)! The kid is only 5 and he has already got this kind of facial hair!
This is what Connor looked like when he walked through the door when his friend's dad dropped him off after school today. Kids just grow up too fast these days!

What a great way to spend two hours

I have served in a Primary Presidency, (two different ones actually) for over five years now and today I got a new calling, Nursery Leader! I am so excited! For those of you that don't know what this is it means that every Sunday after an hour long Sacrament meeting I get to spend the last two hours of church, while all the grown-ups go to their classes (BORING!) entertaining, teaching, singing, and playing with the children between the ages for 18 months and three years. In my opinion it's the best calling in the church! (Am I right Katie and Mike?) Not everyone seems to share my enthusiasm for it. While serving in primary presidencies we ALWAYS had a hard time keeping the nursery staffed. After I got the call today many members seemed genuinely surprised that I was excited for this. A few even extended their condolences. One of the best parts is that Madison is going into nursery so I get to take her with me every week. No more switching roaming the halls with her with Shaun or holding her while trying to do a sharing time! There is really nothing like teaching the gospel to these sweet (although at times VERY rambunctious!) children and seeing them get it. I know some weeks will be hard and trying but I look forward to every minute of it!

One of my favorite things

These are a recent discovery of mine and I feel a need to share some of their finer points:
1. They're chocolate
2. They've got rainbow sprinkles on them
3. A whole box only costs a dollar!
Need I say more?

*Their only drawback, they're better refrigerated (I figured this out on a hot summer day!) but that makes them harder to hide from my kids, thus making me have to share them!

First day of school

Tuesday was my kids first day back to school after a LONG summer. We had a great vacation in Utah and Wyoming but other than that summer was kind of a bust. This year for the first time I found it really difficult to find things to do that can entertain an 11 year old on down to a 1 year old. The things my big girls wanted to do we couldn't do with the little ones and the things that made my little ones happy, the big girls got bored with real fast! So my solution was to just hang out at home all day which just seemed to bore all of them! We were all ready for school to start!Amanda started Middle School this year. That was big for me. I'm never very sad to send my kids off to kindergarten, because for the most part I know I'm leaving them in a safe, loving, and nurturing environment, but middle school is a different story. I felt like I was just throwing her to the wolves! I even drove past the middle school one time that first day. I'm not sure what I thought I might see. Maybe kids walking around tattooing each other while in a drug induced haze? Amanda made it through her first day without getting lost, being able to figure out her combination lock and was not sporting any new tattoos. She even quite enjoyed it! Sam started 4th grade and has the same teacher Amanda had the last two years so was very excited! She also had a great day and even said to me how strange it was not having Amanda there. She said she usually didn't see Amanda very often during the day, but it was just strange knowing she wasn't there. That almost sounded like she missed Amanda. Of course that remark had followed a typical Sammie remark about how strange Amanda had looked that day, which had sent Amanda to her room crying. Too bad she was in there to miss the almost nice thing Sammie said about her! Connor started PEPP this year which is a pre-K program our district has. We have a really late kindergarten deadline (Dec.1) so any child with a birthday in the last 6 months of the year qualifies for this pre-K program if they don't feel ready for kindergarten. He could have started kindergarten this year, but PEPP is the perfect fit for him. Many moms think I'm crazy because our district also went to full day kindergarten this year so instead of him only going from 8-11:20, I could have had him gone until 2:20! All day! But PEPP is the place for him. It gives him a little more time to mature, and like Shaun pointed out, be a little bigger for playing sports in High School-important stuff like that! Now Mads and I are home every morning alone and so far we are loving it. She doesn't seem to miss the big kids too much, she just kind of wanders around doing her thing, pulling all the DVDs out, emptying drawers, and cabinets and sitting on the kitchen table!

One of my favorite things

This is a movie that I saw a few years ago and really liked it, then a few months ago I watched it on TV and LOVED it! I bought the soundtrack for my I POD and listened to it all the way to Utah and back. I saw the movie for sale at Target for $9.00 and had to get it. I'm not one to buy movies because I generally do not like to watch movies more than once, but this is the rare exception. I am also not a big Hugh Grant or Drew Barrymore fan, so if you're not don't let that scare you away. They are really funny in it and they have great chemistry, especially when they sing together! You just can't go wrong with a made up 80's pop band!

Be careful what you ask for!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

When I posted a few months ago about Amanda's birthday party my sister-in-law, Jenny said that she wanted a treasure hunt and a chocolate fountain for her birthday too. Well, you better be careful what you ask for because it just might come true! While in Lovell Jenny had a pretty significant milestone hit, her 30th birthday! I know, she looks too young to be 30, but it's true! As many of you know Matt is out of the country for a few months and so he was not able to come to Lovell with us or be with Jenny on her b-day, so we put our heads together and tried to come up with a way to make it special for her anyway. I remembered the comment she made on my blog and our plan was hatched, and it included a treasure hunt and a chocolate fountain! Matt wrote to a lot of friends and family members to get them to send letters and birthday greetings to Jenny to open for her "treasure". Her day started out with her gifts from Logan and Josh. She got one free shot at each of them with the bb gun! It's not as harsh as it sounds, she only got to pump it once and she had to aim for their calves! She went 1 for 2 and Josh had the welt to prove it! Later that afternoon her first clue was delivered for a treasure hunt that took her all over the town of Lovell. And it was delivered in style, as a singing telegram (in perfect harmony, I might add!) by Josh and Logan (Those two boys sure kept us entertained!). I wanted Jenny to be able to see all the spots in Lovell that Matt might have shown her, had he been there. These places were some of the highlights of our childhood! The hunt took her to Saveway (the worlds best nachos!), the church (largest LDS church building in the church!), the ball park, the IGA where Granddad's picture hangs on the wall, the Hyartt, and lastly at Jack and Sheralynes house. She got her treasure, the chocolate fountain we had a hot dog roast out on the side of the hill like we did EVERY summer growing up. Her night was then capped off by a spectacular fireworks show! I knew Jenny would NEVER post this many pictures of herself, so I took it upon myself to post them for her! Hope you had a great b-day Jenny, I know we all enjoyed it!

Funny, but not real smart

I don't know who took this picture, but it ended up on the disc of pictures taken while we were on vacation. It may not mean anything to many of you but it brings back a lot of memories for me. My grandparents in Wyoming never had a city water line, so they had to haul all their water in from town to fill their cistern. This is the trailer used to do that. As kids we used to love to go to town with Grad to fill the tank. Our favorite part was when we got there and as he fed quarters to the water machine we would get up in the trailer, by the tank and watch the water go in from the big pipe above. The funny thing we used to do was spit into it while it was filling up. And not just a little. A LOT. Funnier yet is that it never occurred to us that we were spitting into our drinking water. HMMMM?!

Only Logan

Just a short drive up the highway from Lovell, (where our family reunion was) is Powell Wyoming, home of the "froggy" pool. One afternoon we decided to take the kids up there for a swim. Poor Logan, he really doesn't let his IBS hold him back in life, but sometimes he has no choice. All the other kids enjoyed the pool and Logan put on his best happy face and watched from the sidelines.

Why we call it the "froggy" pool! The kids had fun even though there was a small cloud burst right as we got there. We waited it out and only got out of the water when we saw lightning!

Mads didn't like the slide very well, but she loved jumping in from the side!

Right next to the Froggy pool was a little park with a really cool hill by it. None of us could resist running down it, rolling down it and doing tricks on it, not even me! My sister-in-law Jenny was showing off by doing cartwheels and round-offs (us Holmans posses a gene that physically prevents us from being able to do any sort of acrobatics, no matter how hard we try!). But with a little "trick" photography(thanks dad!) Logan and I can look just as cool as Jenny!

Ta-Da!

My dad was supposed to be taking pictures of the girls trying to do a trick, but Logan noticed the camera on him so he decided to ham it up. Here he is "hugging" me. How do I know it was a fake hug? Check out the next picture! That's the real Logan!

Logan "kicking " me down the hill! That's brotherly love for you!

Things you normally would never let your kids do, but because you're in Wyoming it seems OK

1. Hold Roman candles, after they've been lit!

Maybe this is why. That's Logan in the middle of the fire that our fireworks started on the side of the hill! He's our hero, and not just of the guitar sort!

2. Shoot guns

While in Utah we took a trip up to Wyoming for a family reunion. I'm glad Jenny and her family were able to come so they could see why our family loves that place so much. I know the song on my playlist is about West Virgina, but substitute Wyoming for West Virgina and that is exactly how I feel!

Mohawk

When we got to Utah I happened to mention to my brother that Connor needed a hair cut. Connor LOVED his last hair cut (the buzz!), so that was what I was planning on doing. Josh said, "You pay to have someone do that? I can do it for free." Well, I'm not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, so I took him up on it! Josh asked Connor if he wanted a Mohawk and Connor thought that would be cool! I decided that it was summer and we were on vacation so why not! So here's Connor with his first, and hopefully last, Mohawk! I let him keep it for a week or so, but uncle Josh has since shaved it off. It was cool while it lasted!

Connor and his stylists! (Uncle Josh and his girlfriend Kristy.)

The finished product!