The Worst New Year's Eve and the Year in Review

I usually love New Year's Eve. It is one of my favorite holidays! I love to eat fun finger food, go dancing, and stay up late to ring in the new year. I especially love getting to kiss my husband at the stroke of midnight. It's something I look forward to all year long.

This year I rang in the new year by throwing up. It was epic in an entirely different way then normal. Monday morning Luke got sick, Max dominated Monday evening and night, Darreck took his turn Tuesday morning and afternoon, and I was lucky enough to pull Tuesday evening and all night. I also managed to get it the very worst. I haven't been that sick since high school; it was horrible.

I'm calling for a do-over. I want another shot at New Year's Eve. I think I may have to plan a night out with Darreck to compensate because I simply cannot leave the record the way it stands, especially after such a good year.

It really was a great year! We had some great times during 2013, and the beauty was in the lack of major life events. This year we did not: move, start new jobs, have a baby, or experience any great loss. Call me boring, but that alone makes it good for me. I'm not big on upheaval. We did go on a fun vacation with my family, hike and camp, updated our entire first floor, changed callings multiple times (both Darreck and I), and had a ton of fun as a family. Max also started preschool and we started homeschooling. Luke grew by double, learned to walk and talk, and was generally cute. We have the best boys ever!

I have a feeling that next year won't be quite so calm. Well, maybe more than just a feeling. Stay tuned...

Christmas Day

We slept in for what may be the last Christmas for many, many years. One of the few advantages to having small children still. When we did all get around to getting up, the boys were thrilled to see that Santa brought them what they had requested- a stuffed Sully bear for Luke and knights armor for Max. We opened our Santa presents and stockings then headed over to my parents' house to open presents.

We were spoiled again this year by my family, and I even got the new camera lens I wanted! The morning was fun, and we had a good time hanging out and taking things slow- just as it should be on Christmas day. We made it home in time for naps, another great idea on Christmas day, then went to Grandma-Great's house for Christmas dinner. We had the traditional ham, funeral potatoes, green bean casserole, and other assorted veggies. Dessert was a selection of pies, just as it has been through generations of Holts. Grandma is nothing if not traditional!

Max was good for so much of the day, but he made up for all that good behavior during dinner. We can't expect Max to be good all the time now can we. Luke was also good until I tried to take his Christmas picture in front of the Christmas tree then it was a total meltdown. I almost feel bad for the boys; it's hard being little and off your schedule. For the most part they handled it wonderfully, although I'm hoping it gets a little less dramatic as the kids get bigger.

We were so thankful to celebrate Christmas and the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ this season. We spent a lot of time this month talking about the nativity and making sure Max knew the true reason for the season. I'm so proud of his willingness and ability to learn about our religious heritage instead of just focusing on the commercialism. We had a great time singing and reading as a family, and those are the memories I'm excited to carry with us throughout the coming year.

(Had to include the Luke picture. Memories are memories after all!)

Christmas Eve

We spent Christmas Eve morning at home, eating junk food and messing up the house. With two young boys and one husband, the house never stays clean for long during Christmas break. I'm almost okay with it. After lunch and naps, we headed over to my parent's house for hors d'oeurves and watching the nativity. Christmas Eve dinner is my favorite meal of the entire year, which completely baffles my grandma. We had crab ragoons, egg rolls, mini quiche, cocktail shrimp, hot wings, cocktail weenies, and other wonderful fried concoctions. I ate myself silly and loved every, single minute of it.

We turned to the Mormon Channel for some uplifting, short Christmas videos and ended by watching the nativity re-enactment, which is beautiful. It was quiet, we sat by the fire, and the conversation was good. I love spending the holidays with my family. They have a fun but mellow vibe that feels like home. We're always comfortable in their house, which is important during the holidays.

After time with the grandparents, we drove around our end of town looking for more lights. There were a couple houses that coordinated their light shows to a custom radio station, a feat that amazed Max. He loved it! I always feel like such a loser not decorating our house, but living on a cul-de-sac, no one ever sees it anyways. Or, at least that's my justification.

Before bed we opened our family presents. We stuck to a strict present formula this year that included "one thing you want, one thing you need, one thing you'll wear, and one thing you'll read". It was a relief having a stopping point for the gift giving, and I loved how it took the focus away from the presents. It's a tradition we look forward to continuing. We also made a fire, a once a year tradition that everyone looks forward to. We set out some cookies for Santa and sent the boys to bed. They're still at ages where they will go to bed on Christmas Eve, which we may not have too many more years to enjoy. Max was excited but tired; Luke was just tired.

Darreck and I took care of a few more things, but it wasn't even a late night for the parents. I couldn't imagine a more prefect Christmas Eve!

Christmas, Hale-Style

This will go down in the books as one of our best, most-memorable Christmases ever! We got in all the major traditions, and we even got to celebrate for three whole days. On Monday the 23rd, we celebrated with Darreck's family because Ben had surgery on Christmas Eve (a minor surgery to remove pins from his knee). We went over for dinner, which included the missionaries from their ward, and we opened presents.

Among the highlights, Max got a Darth Vadar figurine that is taller than Luke and that Luke is afraid of. It's kind of funny, actually. They got Luke a turtle toy, I got sewing supplies, and Darreck got his traditional Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles toys. Dinner was ham, funeral potatoes (mine), marshmallow sweet potatoes (Darreck's favorite), rolls, and broccoli. For dinner I made a very festive red velvet cake with green frosting. The elders were weird, but it all worked out.

We took the long, LONG way home so that we could look at lights. The weather was extremely mild this year, so the lights were pretty good. We drove up through Skyline addition and listened to all the holiday classics. The boys were even well-behaved, miracle of miracles. It was a good kick-off to our marathon Christmas celebration.

The Piano Recital That Wasn't

I have a goal to catch up the blog before the end of the year! We've gotten so far behind with the busyness of the season, but I intend to right that wrong before we reach 2014.

All the way back on December 19th I hosted my annual piano Christmas recital. It was supposed to be Max's first piano recital, emphasis on the "supposed to"! We sent him to school that morning for his Polar Express party, but he was visibly tired by the time we picked him up. He was also coughing. Hard. Then, for the first time ever, in his entire life, he put himself down for a nap and slept for three hours. Absolutely unheard of. By the time he woke up, he was sick- like, sicker than he has ever been in his entire life. I felt so bad for him, but he was also sweet and cuddly and wonderfully behaved. Even illness has a silver lining.

I left Max and Luke with my also-sick mother, and the recital went extremely well. I have two very new students who did an admirable job, and I love watching how my other students have progressed. Everyone did a wonderful job- no tears, no meltdowns, no major mess-ups. I am so proud of all of them! Now I have to keep them on track for the next five months and start preparing for our spring recital. It's a never-ending, very fun treadmill. My students are great!

Max's Preschool Program

Max sang in his first school program today! His preschool hosted a little concert, and the kids were both hilarious and adorable. Max had one little girl in his class that shouted out the words to each song, completely out of time, so we didn't hear much from Max but we could tell how hard he was trying. After the show, his teacher told us that he was so excited before that he was shaking. When he first got on stage, he stood there with his hands in his pockets, looking around for us. When he finally spotted Luke, he broke into a huge grin!

The songs were cute with one exception, a particularly disturbing number about chopping down Christmas trees. The kids knew very little of the words, but that doesn't matter much when you're dealing with preschoolers. The kids were cute, and that's good enough for parents and grandparents.

We're just proud of our little man for being brave enough to stand up there and sing the very best he could. I love watching his concentration and the effort he puts into doing things well. Those qualities will serve him well later in life.

Finally Trimming the Tree

We finally got around to decorating the Christmas tree last night. It's gotten delayed a couple of times, unfortunately. We usually decorate the tree the day after Thanksgiving, but Luke and I both had head colds. No one was much in the mood to decorate on Friday.

Monday night we got everything out and were all ready to go, and then we found out that an entire strand of lights weren't working. We picked some up from my parents, but those ones wouldn't connect together. It was one thing after another after another, and Max got more than a little impatient.

We got our act together last night and finished putting on the ornaments, including our new sheep ornament we purchased this year. I love our tradition of a new ornament each year! It creates a special, tangible memory for each year that we can look back on.

We initially thought Luke would hinder the decorating process, but he really enjoyed helping us out. Now if we can stop him from undecorating the tree the rest of the year! Love spending time with our boys, no matter what we're doing!

Thanksgiving Times 2

Once again I'm woefully behind on updating the blog. I love the busyness of the holidays, but documenting the good times can be a challenge for me. Thanksgiving this year was great, and we even got to do it twice!

We went to Hale's house for Thanksgiving on Wednesday because Tim had to work the rest of the week. We had a lunch-time dinner, and had a good time celebrating with Darreck's family. It was a pretty low-key event, and we had to get home pretty early so I could teach my Wednesday lessons. We spent the evening cooking food for the next day.

Grandma showed some trust this year and let me bring sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, green bean casserole, lemon meringue pie, and chocolate silk pie. I love holiday cooking. It's a small, meaningful way for me to give back to my family, and I always look forward to it.

Thursday, actual Thanksgiving, was spent at my parents' house. All the women prepared food and all the men- plus Kayla- watched football. We do Thanksgiving pretty traditionally, but that suits us just fine! The sister missionaries and my parents' friends the Johnsons joined us this year, as well. We always have a few "extras" around the holidays, which makes our celebrations even more meaningful.

The food was good, the conversation was good, and we even got in some black Friday shopping this year. Success all-around. The important part, however, was saying thanks to our Heavenly Father who has so abundantly blessed us this year. We are so blessed to have a warm home, plenty of food, the ability to provide for our needs, and all the temporal things we need. Even more so, we are so blessed to have the gospel of Jesus Christ in our life. We are blessed to have an eternal family, and I feel so incredibly lucky to have my wonderful family. We have so much to give thanks for!

Max's Half-Birthday

I'm so glad I looked at the calendar today and realized it was Max's half-birthday! I haven't given a good update on him in what seems like forever, and I'm literally astounded by the progress he's made these past few months.

I'm not saying he doesn't still have his challenging moments, but it seems like he's grown up by leaps and bounds since his birthday. Even his looks have changed! He has gone from little kid cutesy to looking like a real kid, and he has the maturity to go along with it. His tantrums have decreased, he's playing better with Luke, and he's stepping up more around the house. I can finally see the light at the end of the toddler tunnel!

Max's chore system has been going well lately, and he's been working very hard to earn allowance. Everyday he cleans his own room, makes his own bed, practices piano, and does homework. I love how motivated he is to do his work and do the best he can.

He has also grown academically. When Max first started preschool, he kept asking me for more work. He loves worksheets! We started supplementing his preschool work with a K4 home school program that combines preschool and kindergarten into one year. So far he's completely rocking it! He can count to 20 without prompting and then all the way to 100 with minimal help, he can identify and write his entire alphabet, and he's reading very simple books. Most importantly, he loves to learn! He recently spent a few weeks allowance buying a book about mummies, which we've read to him multiple times.

As a mother, there is nothing more rewarding to me than seeing my child thirst for knowledge. He's participating in family scripture study, memorizing scriptures, learning the stories, and still he asks me for more. Some days it's hard to keep up with, but I wouldn't trade it for the world.

I can't imagine our family without our amazing oldest kiddo! We love Max more than anything, and it's so much fun watching him grow.

Max's First Primary Program

Max participated in his very first primary program this Sunday, and he was incredibly entertaining! The primary presidency had the Sunbeams stand up front for the first two songs and as they sang their parts, and that was about all they could handle. They were up there making faces at each other and hanging on the railing and picking their noses, but they somehow managed to be cute. Only when you're four...

Max did a wonderful job of saying his part, which he spent a few weeks practicing and memorizing. He even got to write his own part, which was, "Some of my favorite creations are trees, thunder, and lightning." We not only worked on memorization but also on his diction. He tended to race through it, so we worked at home on slowing down and enunciating. I'm thankful that our boys have a chance to practice public speaking from a very young age; it's such an important life skill.

We've also been working on learning all the program songs, which was quite a task considering we didn't know which songs the Sunbeams would be participating in. He managed to memorize them all, but he spent most of the time with his hand covering his mouth. Of course!

We're so proud of our munchkin-Max, crazy faces and distracting behavior and all. He was brave and well-spoken, and it's so exciting seeing him acting all grown-up. We love our Monster Max!

Happy Halloween!

We had a great, wonderful, exhausting, glad-I-don't-have-to-do-it-again-tomorrow kind of Halloween. We started off early, for us at least, with Max's preschool party, which I stayed for. Three hours with 25 four year olds! It was so loud but so much fun. He played games, decorated cookies, did some crafts, and ran around in the gym. It was fun seeing him interact with his classmates, but you could see the over-stimulation on his face. The kid does not love big crowds, much like his mom and dad. The best part of the preschool party was getting Darreck involved in Halloween. He works most Halloween nights, so this was his chance to get in on the fun this year. There are few thing I love more than seeing my boys together.

After a quick quiet time and Max's piano lesson, we headed over to my parents' house. The traditional waffles were subbed out for pancakes this year, but dinner was still great. Dad, Kayla, and I took Max out trick-or-treating for 45 minutes, and we came back with a huge haul. The kid made out well this year! He's in bed now and I'm stealing his Almond Joys...

We keep Halloween pretty low-key around here, but every year with the kids I grow to like it more and more. As Max has gotten more into the festivities, it's really opened my eyes to how much fun the day can be. I've loved helping him with crafts and picking out his costume this year. Halloween is also a great excuse to reconnect with the neighbors before winter settles in. We loved getting to see everyone tonight.

Now, on to the pictures. These were from Max's school today, and I tried to sneak in every shot I could. The boys are horrible about posing and holding still! I had to laugh- I was taking pictures for some friends from church, and I got absolutely wonderful shots of their kids and very few of my own. Such is life.

Mom's Birthday, Max's Project

Fall is in the air, and with it come craft projects, apparently. Max had a show-and-tell assignment for school this week to create a pumpkin. It was supposed to be creative. Jeez thanks Mrs. Schoenen (Max's preschool teacher). I have nothing against doing crafts. I actually find them rather relaxing. However, I'm not particularly creative, and we have almost no craft supplies just lying around. I'm so thankful for modern technology sometimes, and tonight I'm particularly grateful for Pinterest, an inspiration collecting site. If you can't think of a good idea on your own, you can always steal one from someone else! His pumpkin turned out really cute, and he was proud of his handiwork, which is the most important part.

We also celebrated my mom's birthday this week. I even got the privilege of making her cake, a low-fat carrot cake. She's doing great trying to eat healthier, and we're all very, very proud of the progress she's made. It was a pretty low-key birthday for her, and I wish we could have done even more to make it special. Birthdays are so much better as a kid! Oh well, happy birthday anyways, Mom!

Family Portraits 2014

It's that time of year again! Family portrait time! Man, I love getting our family pictures done, and it's certainly not because I love to stare at myself (promise!). I see one of my main responsibilities as being the family historian. I want our kids to understand where they come from and have a record of their early lives, even the parts they won't remember on their own. What an amazing legacy!

This year our photos were done by a friend from church, and they turned out wonderfully. In typical fashion, Max was a little pill throughout the entire process, so I'm somewhat amazed that we got shots of him that weren't blurry. The kid loves to have his picture taken, so long as it's on his terms. He threw a fit throughout the entire session. Luke had a huge, red cut on his lip, and I'm so glad she was able to edit it out. Nothing like remembering how bumped and bruised you got as a baby! Sheesh! I suppose that our pictures are supposed to be a representation of our real life, crazy kids and all. 

Pumpkin Carving

We carved our Halloween pumpkins tonight, restarting a tradition that we ran out of time for last year. Max was a big part of the process this year, picking out his very own pumpkin and design. He was all excited to be the "scoop boy" as well, until he figured out that he'd have to touch the pumpkin guts. That got a big, fat "ewwwww!"

Luke waddled around the family activity, looking for his opportunity to steal the pumpkin top and chew on it. He's getting around on two legs very well these days! Such a sweet little man!