Future Rock Star?? You Decide!

Aaron got a mic, a mic stand, and a guitar for his birthday. Future rock star. Ummmm, I'll let you decide!

Sleeping on the couch

I have awoken many times in the past month to find Jonathan all curled up on the couch with his baby and night-night. I have no idea at what point in the night he comes down. Many times his cup of orange juice is sitting on the end table next to him. I suppose it's possible he gets up thinking that it's morning, goes to the refrigerator, grabs his OJ, and waits on the couch for everyone else to get up. . . and eventually falls back to sleep.

I had to snap the picture, though. (for both memories and because he was just so cute all snuggled up like that!)

I asked Jonathan this morning, "why were you sleeping on the couch?"

Jonathan said, "I wasn't sleeping on the couch, mommy, I was just hanging out with you."

2000-2009 - What a Decade!

2000 - Our baby was our dog, Katie. I was teaching at Woodside High School - High School Choral Director - (this was my first year at Woodside - and I had just taken the Select Mixed Chamber Choir Die Meistersingers to the White House to perform. Fun times! Rich was interim pastor at a church in Virginia, while also working on his MDiv at Southeastern Seminary.

2001 - Still teaching High School Chorus - still loving it - Took the choral department to Gatlinburg for competition and won the Grand Champion Trophy for highest overall scores of the competition. When I went to collect the trophy, (only the teacher was allowed to collect that particular trophy) the person in charge said, "honey, you need to get your teacher to come down and get this one." Rich became pastor of a church in Virginia, while still working on his MDiv.

2002 - Still teaching at Woodside High School and also preparing to be a mommy. Martin was born in May, thus ending my teaching career. (outside the home) Rich was pastoring our church and graduated with his MDiv at the end of this year.

2003 - Moved to NC for Rich to pursue the PhD program, Rich began working for Sears full time while also working on his PhD, had a devestating miscarriage at 12 weeks along, continued to be at home with my sweet Martin. Our dog, Katie, became "the dog", losing "baby" status when Martin came along. She only made it into pictures on accident. (she is an amazing dog that loved our children and was very gentle with them!!)

2004 - Rich continued to work very hard for the family at Sears, while plugging away at the PhD, Aaron was born in December!!

2005 - I adjusted to having 2 small children, began cloth diapering, learned how to sew so that I could make the cloth diapers, got really good at it, and started selling them. Rich still worked incredibly hard for our family - for which I was so thankful - it was hard not having him around much, though!

2006 - Rich still working full time for Sears, and on his PhD, he got hired to work for Garner TV and Appliance - great move for him - he had a much better work environment and was able to make more money. Started homeschooling Martin. Jonathan was born - he was healthy and happy - but the delivery ended in C-section with complications that led to a 6 week recovery that had to take place in Virginia with my mom and dad. Mom had to take care of me and our 3 children for 6 weeks. Rich had to stay in NC and still go to work. Tough times - but thankful for all the help during that hard time. We sadly, decided to find our sweet Katie a new home. We were unable to give her the attention that she needed. We found a wonderful home for her and still get to see pictures of her and hear how she is doing!

2007 - We moved to Campus Housing and loved it! I adjusted to being a mom to 3 boys. Rich still worked hard and finished up his Seminars and moved toward writing his dissertation. Continued homeschooling Martin.

2008 - Rich began to see the PhD as a never ending process unless we made drastic changes. He decided to quit his job and ONLY write his dissertation. Thankfully we had enough in savings to live on while he did this. A month and a half after he quit his job, we were very surprised to be expecting our 4th child. Still homeschooling. Rich finished dissertation and graduated in December!!!!
2009 - Our 4th child and daughter, Rosalie was born. Easy delivery and easy recovery. Rich worked from home teaching online courses through several Universities. We were so thankful that after many years of him being away from us most of the time. . . he was able to work from home and be with us all the time. What a huge blessing! Still homeschooling - Martin and Aaron.

What a busy decade we had! It was full of lots of change and lots of blessings!

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Ice Skating Lessons for Martin!

Balancing on the ice

Wipeout!

Learning balance while trying to pick up a stuffed animal

Successful attempt - stuffed animal in hand

Martin's first day of ice skating was yesterday. The Ice Skating rink in our town offers special classes in the mornings specifically for homeschoolers.
He said that it was hard, but he really liked it. He wants to learn how to ice skate so he can play ice hockey one day! Oh, how his Daddy likes to hear that!!

Rosalie is 11 months old!!

I can hardly believe my baby girl is 11 months old!

Here are some facts about our sweet Rosalie:

In October, she was swimming in her 6-9 month clothing and by December she was busting out of them. Somewhere in there she had a huge growth spurt.

She started solids in November. She especially loves bananas, but will eat anything we feed her.

She sleeps all night most of the time.

She wakes up between 5 and 6 every morning. Yes, it's early, but she goes to bed at 7 PM. I can hardly complain about that!

She is very busy. I now understand why people dread a baby becoming mobile. I have always loved it when my babies start crawling. They become so much happier, since they are able to explore. I've been blessed up until this point, with babies who stop and move on when I say no. Rosalie is far more persistent, however. When we say no to Rosalie, it just causes her to work harder and faster at doing what she wants to do. There are times when saying no to her will even cause her to laugh at me. (I suppose she just doesn't think I mean business??)

Thankfully, I have 3 other protectors around to keep her safe! (And her brothers - all 3 of them - do keep her safe!)

1 more month until her first birthday!!

A much needed nap

Sure, Rosalie probably needed this nap. But what this picture doesn't show you is the nap I was taking in the other room. After the stomach virus swept through the Holland home - I was completely wiped out. It was almost an entire week of no sleep for me. So, I put Jonathan down for his nap, Rosalie down for her nap and did something I rarely do. I took a nap! Rosalie, as usual, woke up after only 30 minutes. Rich got her and sang her back to sleep. The picture above is what I saw when I got up!

My sweet girl sleeping on Daddy.

New Years Eve Celebration

We decided to make the whole day a pajama party day. Even Rich and I stayed in our pajamas. We ate lots of foods we don't normally eat - starting with Hot dogs for lunch - on whole wheat buns. (buns that I did not make!!) We also played a family board game of Sorry - Rich won.

Rich helped the boys make special party hats.

We had an appetizer dinner. Hot pizza dip (thanks Marsha!), spinach dip, and meatballs in italian sauce. For dipping, we had celery, carrots, broccoli, potato chips, pretzel crisps, and white italian crusty bread.We ate our appetizer dinner on a big blanket spread out on the floor while watching Walt Disney's Swiss Family Robinson.
The boys had only one thing to say before they went to bed, "Can we have another party day tomorrow?"