November Update

Oh, my good old updates I know you are as excited as I am right?  I do this for journaling purposes...... I ran across my high school journal the other day and was having some good chuckles!  The things that were so important to me then seem a bit shallow and ridiculous, hopefully my fully grown children won't judge too harshly :)  Anyways, Bryan is in school and working which equals he is non existent to us throughout the week.  We do get to see him on Friday and Saturday though, so that's a plus!  I have hit my busy season and am just trying to stay on top of things.  I have a double session this Friday and I only have an hour between shoots, so it should be pretty crazy!  I am also trying to do better with spending quality time with my kids.  It is so hard to get all my editing done and make sure I'm not neglecting my children......... ugh, I need better time management skills ;)  I am looking forward to the holidays and spending time with my family!  I love playing Santa too :)  Bryan was put in charge of Ethan this year and I am doing all of Kye's.  The problem is I am nearly done, and he won't even bother with it.  If I don't kick his but he will be trying to shop on Christmas Eve, he drives me bonkers!  I am not a fan of busy shopping malls and stores, so I tend to get it done early and be done with it.  Kylie is a busy bee too.  She has been doing great in school, dancing like crazy, and even doing so well with her solo classes!  She even started choir again at school which she loves doing every year.  Ethan is on break for preschool he is doing so well though.  He is writing up a storm and asks how to spell everything so he can write it down :)  I remember Kye going through this phase too!  He wrote his entire wishlist to Santa by himself :)  So proud of him and how much he is learning this year.  Well that is us as of right now, short and sweet!

2011's Holt 12 Days of Christmas!

Here we go again, my 12 days of Christmas has become a loved tradition for my kids at our house.  I try to add a few new things in every year, mixed with some old favorites too :)  So here we go!

*I go from the 13th to Christmas Eve (Christmas day is already jammed with goodness)

1st Day- "A Christmas Story"-- We will be getting out all our favorite Christmas books and reading them, don't forget your jingle bell for Polar Express :)

2nd Day- "Carve the Roast Beast"-- We are going to have a special dinner (I haven't decided if it will be out or in)

3rd Day- "Starry Starry Night"-- We will be getting our artist on and creating a craft!  I am doing it on canvas this year so we can put it up every Christmas :)

4th Day- "Twinkle, Twinkle little Night"-- We will go and see the LIGHTS!

5th Day- "Holly Jolly"-- Some silly elves at good old Gardner Village will be fun to visit.

6th Day- "Oh Holy Night"-- A night of studying our scriptures and discussing the true meaning of the Christmas season :)

7th Day- "Life is Like a Box of Chocolates"-- this is new......I am getting a big box of chocolates and we are going to have some laughs trying each one---  with a garbage near by to spit out the yucky ones ;)

8th Day- "Pretty Presents with Ribbons & Bows"-- We will be making and handing out our neighbor gifts.

9th Day- "With Chutes & Ladders There Arose Such a Clatter"-- LOL, just a fun family game night!

10th Day- "Holiday Happiness"-- This is our movie night, I'm sure A Christmas Story and some hot cocoa will be involved :)

11th Day- "Visions of Sugar Plumbs"-- We will be making cookies for Santa Claus (it is Christmas eve eve you know)

12th Day- "Twas the Night Before Christmas"-- This is pretty traditional, the kids will get their first gift of Christmas matching Pj's! (I already got them, blue penguins!)

Well that is our 12 days of Christmas plans this year!  It may seem silly to some, but we have a great time doing it!  I hope you all have a fun Holiday season!  I am counting down the days for yummy turkey dinner and holiday trinkets and trees :)

Happy Halloween

I hope everyone has a fun and safe night of Tricks and Treats!

Happy Halloween :)

Neverland.......

Finally Ethan in his costume.......  I finally got him to pose for me, and it lasted about two seconds :)  Well at least I got two great ones, he is so dreamy as my little Captain Hook!  It is good that Captain Hook is a little mean, because he looks a little grumpy ;)

Awesomeness.....

This is me and my bestest friend Al!  Aren't we just so freakin photogenic?  

Bling baby, BLING!

Okay I got this top for the holidays!  I am shiny like a Christmas ornament :)  Bry hates it, but who asked him anyways.  Bling baby, bling!  I love sparkles :)

Dear Santa.....

So yesterday I decided to sit down with my kids and see what they wanted for Christmas this year.  I am a little behind on things, since I usually am almost completely done shopping by now :)  I know I'm crazy, but I don't like hectic shopping at the last minute.  I am one of those people whose heart races if I am going to be late somewhere!  This was definitely the first year that I had NO idea what my kids really wanted.  So we sat down and talked and then looked at items on the internet to see what they were talking about :)  Ethan is the easiest kid on the PLANET!  His list consists of three things:  A remote control car (the ones like Kikki took to the cabin), cars (can I have a truck and a trailer?), and legos (a cabin and a boat one).  Wow, that is super duper easy peasy!!!!  Now Kylie has a bit longer list, but her birthday is also a month before Christmas so we have to plan for that too.  She would like:  the Barbie glam vacation home, new Barbie furniture, a new Ken (since Ethan took her old ones head off), a Barbie car, and a Barbie pool......... now here is the one I had NO idea what she was talking about...... Can I please get some Monster High dolls!   What the heck are those?  Well she took me right to their website (must have seen it on a commercial I'm guessing), Monster High dolls are like Barbie or Bratz, but they're monsters :) Lol, she said she would really, really like some.  Bry looked at me like I as a bit nutso when I told him.  Here is what they are:

They are kind of cute, and she showed me some of the videos on the website and they are all about teaching girls how to feel good about themselves and treat other girls kindly and all that jazz.  So I guess Santa will be looking for Monster High dolls........  I'm glad my kids don't make things too difficult :)

October Update

Ready for an October update and the rest of Kye's Rapunzel pictures?  I thought so ;)  Bry is busy with school and work, but I am glad we get to see him at least on the weekends.  I have hit my busy season, so now I have a ginormous pile of editing awaiting me each day.  Some how I've got to figure in Ethan's Halloween pictures and Kye's birthday pictures before it gets too cold (since Kye doesn't handle the cold well with picture taking).  I have been helping out in Kye's class every Tuesday and enjoy getting to see how her class runs.  I think I am her teachers only helper because each week I have an hours work of copying to do before anything else ;)  I laminated for the first time too!  It has been fun getting more involved at her school.  I worked the book fair and have been told I am helping with the entire Reflections program next year :)  Hopefully it's a better theme then this years!  Kye is doing so great in the 1st grade!  She has been scoring 100% on all of her tests every week and started spelling tests too (which she has not missed one yet!), what a smarty pants!  She is now off track so hopefully we can go get some fun in ;)  She picked out her music for her solo and starts her practices for that on the 8th.  She is just getting so big,  Bry told me yesterday he is getting sad because he doesn't want her to get big.  Below are the rest of her Halloween pictures, which she obviously ate up!  She makes one perfect Rapunzel with her big green eyes!  We shot these up by my parents cabin,  I wanted to do floating lanterns, but apparently they are a bit of a fire hazard!  Ethan has been playing T-ball, and he is awesome at it.  This has been a much better experience then soccer.  He's quite the little slugger and has the time of his life playing!  He has also started preschool with Miss Hollie again and is enjoying writing all his letters.  Sadly he missed his Johnny Appleseed party this week because he got a major case of croup :(  The poor kid gets croup way too much, which has led the doctors to believe he may have asthma.  They gave me some asthma medication to try out for the next few months.  Growing up with a mom with severe asthma has taught me a lot, so I hope he doesn't, but if so I am ready for it.  He will play outside and come in drenched in sweat.  I never thought it might be because his little body had to work harder to breathe :(  We had been discussing a puppy too, but if this is the case we will never be able to have one, or even visit houses with dogs.  I always remember my mom going to a house with a dog as a kid.  No one realizes it's a problem because she doesn't have an asthmatic reaction right there.  It is the 5 days after the event where you see her wheezing with a red raw throat that you realize she just tortured herself :(  So you can see we are hoping that is not the case.  That is pretty much us in a nutshell right now.  

Coming Soon...... TANGLED

Read It.............{KIDLETS}

One thing I love to do is read.  I am a lover of literature, and have a wide variety of tastes.  I've decided to do some posts books I love and also ones I have pure hatred for ;)  I am also going to do a kidlets version.  When I became a mommy I had already started buying children's books.  They sometimes have some of the simplest, yet best messages.  Have you read the Pout Pout fish?  I "heart" it :)  If you haven't read it you should, it may just be one you buy for the bookshelf.  However, you may have much different tastes then myself and hate it.  I don't know how you could unless your a grumpy old pout pout fish, but hey who am I to judge you ;)