Pre-Vacation

Its been a while since I've updated everyone, because we have been having so much fun that I haven't taken a minute to write up a post. My sister came to visit a week before vacation to be my nanny for a week while daycare was closed. It was awesome, let me tell you. She and Holden had a great time and I came home to a clean dishwasher and vacuumed floors. Did I mention it was awesome. I also got to spend some much needed quality time with my baby sister, who is almost a college graduate.We had a great time, made a pilgrimage to the local Ikea and got Holden a new table and rug to play on. We got him some crayons and paper and let him have a great time. Only took about 2 hours for crayon to get all over the table and chairs, supposedly its washable.Holden has become the little imitator lately always wanting to help unless its putting toys away. He likes to sweep, mop, throw things in the trash. I might need to remind him of this time when he's 16.
We made some cookies the day before heading to Tennessee for a big family reunion, Holden was having a blast helping.He has picked up a few more signs "more" and "bath" and his favorite words seem to be "mama" and "no". Cute but gets old fast when he wanders all around the house wining "mama".

I've been remiss

I've really slacked on the blog lately, it has been crazy busy at work lately. And just my luck during the 2 hottest weeks of the year I have had to work outside in the stifling heat. As a result, my diet and exercise have been derailed and the energy has been sucked out of me. But the good news is we go on a family vacation in 7 days. We are headed to the Smoky Mountains for a big family reunion, we are very excited. So, to catch you up until we get back from the reunion, here are some photos of Holden's shenanigans.

Holden found my Ipod shuffle and Dad showed him how to use it. I'm not sure Dad's rule of no cell phone until High School is going to fly.
4th of July
Time for a haircut I think. Holden has a snuggle now, Mr. Elephant.
Lots and lots of sand at Myrtle Beach

Happy Father's Day

Life Lessons

You may have thought I didn’t see, or that I hadn’t heard,
Life lessons that you taught to me, but I got every word.
Perhaps you thought I missed it all, and that we’d grow apart,
But Dad, I picked up everything, it’s written on my heart.
Without you, Dad, I wouldn’t be the woman I am today;
You built a strong foundation, no one can take away.
I’ve grown up with your values, and I’m very glad I did;
So here’s to you, dear father, from your forever grateful kid. (source)Thank you Dad, for inspiring me to be the strong successful woman I am today. And for teaching me all things football :) Happy Father's Day, love your daughter.

Video

Some afternoon fun.

Milestones

Holden turned 15 months last week and it was accompanied with a few milestones that made Mom and Dad jump for joy and break out the video camera.

• Holden is a walking maniac. He just walks and walks around the house, no more crawling in his book.
  
• He is signing "milk" and "eat". This makes us very happy, we have been working on "milk", "eat" and "more" for about a month. Its cool to see him understand us, so we have moved on to a few more signs.
  
• He says "baw" for ball, and "dity" for Kitty. All weekend, he kept finding cat toys, little balls with bells in them, and taking them to Jeremy saying "baw, baw". But of course, when Jeremy tried to catch it on video tape Holden decided not to perform.

We recently acquired a dining room table so we did some furniture rearranging this weekend and moved the kitchen table back into the kitchen. Yay for eating in the kitchen again and not in front of the T.V. However, to accommodate a table back in the kitchen we had to retire the highchair. Holden is now full time in a booster seat that attaches to a kitchen chair. It is much more manageable, and much easier to clean than the highchair.

Last random thought, I have two personal goals for June. First, is to get back on track with Couch to 5K, I'm hoping to be running 20 minutes solid by the 4th of July. Second, I'm going to cut down my T.V. time significantly. Not turning it on until 8 pm and if there isn't anything on to watch (like Top Chef) then I am going to find something else to do. I think it will be a hard habit to break, especially since Jeremy isn't convinced of my plan, but I want to find something more productive to do with my time and I don't want us to start a bad T.V. habit for Holden.

100 posts

Just like missing when my car hit 100,000 miles in May, I missed when I reached my 100th post. I will tell you I'm really surprised that I have stuck to the blog. I don't consider myself a writer in any stretch of the imagination, and I am usually a bit out of my comfort zone to talk about myself and our life in a semi-public forum. I say semi-public, because I think I have like 5 readers including my parents. However, I love that I have been able to document our first year plus with Holden and I kind of use the blog as a baby book because God knows the actual baby book hasn't been written in since he was like 4 months old.

So for my 5 fans, thanks for sticking with me. And just for fun, here is a sneak peak of Holden's 1 year photos. I can't wait to get the rest of them.

This is my favorite one so farI love Jeremy and Holden in this one, its very typical for both of themCan I say "cute baby"

Credit where Credit is Due: Photos by Blue Sky Studios, Inc.

Summertime

Trip to the beach for Memorial day, and first camping trip of the season. Here is what I would like to convey.

2009 Beach Trip

Memorial Day 2010What a difference a year makes. Holden loved the water until a wave took both him and me out at the shoreline.