Merry Christmas!!

Well, Christmas has come and gone and what a Christmas we had here at the Holder household! It all started with Christmas Eve. We were sitting around watching "It's a Wonderful Life" when the power went off. It came back on a minute later. An hour later the power went off again, but this time it didn't come back on like it did earlier. Chris called the power company and the recording said the estimated time for the power to be restored was 11:00 that night! So we put the kids to bed. It came back on an hour earlier than expected.


I made sure I got up bright an early this morning because yesterday Sean got up before 7:00 and helped himself to some "breakfast". His breakfast consisted of several packets of gummy fruit snacks! When I heard him out there I got up and realized it was just Sean up and about. I asked him where everyone was and he answered "They seeping." So, I wanted to make sure I was out there before he got up.


I headed to the kitchen to start breakfast and found my first "present". Travis (our dog) had pooped on the kitchen floor! I was not a happy camper. So instead of starting breakfast I cleaned my kitchen floor.

Chris came out and started breakfast (cinnamon rolls) for me while the kids were starting to straggle out to the living room. I wanted to make sure I got a good picture of Sean's reaction to his tool bench, so I was sitting in the living room with my camera in hand ready to capture the moment. Here is a picture of our sad little tree and the tool bench:

Of course this was the morning Sean didn't want to get out of bed. So the rest of the kids opened one gift each while we waited for breakfast and for Sean to decide to come out and join us. Chris mentioned to me that he put the cinnamon rolls on two sheets instead of one and they were in the oven side by side. I told him he might want to keep an eye on them then. For some reason when you put two cookie sheets side by side in our oven the stuff burns. The words were still lingering in the air when the smoke detectors went off! All of our detectors are wired together, so every one of them were blaring. We all raced around opening windows and doors. The dog (who is afraid of loud noises) made a break for it and ran out the front door.

So during the chaos of alarms sounding, kids running after the dog and smoke filling the house, Sean decides that is the time to come out of his room and play with his tool bench! I totally missed my photo op of his reaction. He did like it though.




The kids all seemed to love their gifts. I wish I had video taped the entire gift opening because their reactions were so funny. It wasn't their reactions to their gifts, it was their reaction to everyone else's gifts that was funny. When Hannah opened the first High School Musical DVD, she was happy, but when she opened second one she squealed and Austin looked over at her and said "Oh great! What is it now?" When Matthew was jumping up and down when he opened his Nerf dart guns all of them moaned in unison "Oh man!" Austin got a remote control spy car and Rebeckah was quick to tell him if that thing goes in her room she will break it! I did video tape Hannah opening her digital camera and Rebeckah opening the family gift of Guitar Hero. Here are their reactions:







Here are a few pictures from this morning:







Here are some pictures Hannah took with her camera today:

This is a picture of the Sand Art Brownies we made for our neighbors.

Sean enjoying a cup of hot chocolate.

Hannah's self portraits.

Vacuums, Iraq, Santa, Shorts............and Valentines Day?!?

I know it has been a while since I last wrote, but I have been sick with an awful cold. Sean, Hannah and Matthew had it too. We are almost over the cold, but have a lingering cough.

Last time I wrote I forgot to add this: As I was vacuuming the other day I thought the vacuum was sounding funny and just wasn't working very well. I started taking the vacuum apart, starting with the dirt bin, but it just didn't seem to change things. It still sounded funny and wasn't working properly. I finally took off the curved tube at the bottom. It appeared to be jammed with pine needles. I thought it was strange that pine needles were the cause of the problem. I mean we vacuumed up pine needles last year and had no problems. As I was pulling out the pine needles (which weren't as many as I first thought) I found this:

HOW DOES SOMEONE VACUUM UP A PEN!?!? I know the answer.....only a child would do this. Of course no one in the house remembers vacuuming up a pen. The good news is, my vacuum is back to sounding normal and is working like it did the first day we got it.

We also got another email from Chris' brother in Iraq. He said (minus the personal family stuff): Things are ok over here. It is actually a little easier then when I was in Kosovo. There I was living in a tent for a couple of months. Here we have hot and cold running water, good chow, and a laundry service. The big difference is here we see tragic events on a daily basis. These young kids sacrifice a lot so please remember to keep them in your prayers. Take care.-Steve

We finally decorated our tree and I had to take a picture of one of my favorite ornaments. It is one Matthew's Sunday school teachers made when he was two years old. He was in his cowboy hat and boots phase.

Today Chris and I went out to lunch at Panera. I haven't ever been there before, but Chris has had food from there at his office. I had a delicious sandwich and a yummy brownie for dessert. I could have gone crazy in the bakery there. Everything looked so good!

It was so warm outside Chris and Sean wore short and I had on my capri's and flip flops! That just isn't right to be dressed like that 5 days before Christmas!!

After lunch we went to the mall to see Santa. Sean just wanted to SEE Santa, not get near him. So we went and looked at him from the upper level. Sean was too funny. He was happy to just stand there and watch him from far away. When he was finished looking at Santa, we went to Build-a-Bear and let Sean build a puppy dog. He named his puppy dog Puppy. He thought it was fun to watch the stuffing roll around in the big machine, but his favorite part was giving Puppy a "bath". He insisted he could carry that big box all by himself. He was too cute. I wish I had brought the camera. Here is a picture of Sean at home with Puppy.

After the kids got home from school we ran to Wal-Mart to get some stuff the kids needed to take to school for their classroom parties tomorrow. As we were there we noticed that they are putting out VALENTINE'S STUFF!!!! Excuse me? We haven't even celebrated Christmas or New Year's yet and they are putting out Valentine's stuff? Am I the only one that finds this ridiculous?

WHY? and Christmas shopping

Sean has entered that stage of asking, "Why?", "Why?", "Why?"! I am so tired of the endless series of "WHY?" It is exhausting trying to answer each "Why?". If I try to ignore him he only gets louder! Most of the "Why?" sessions end with me saying "Because God made it/them that way." or "Because I said so!"

Today was a long, exhausting, yet fun and productive day around here. Our church offered free childcare for all Children's Ministry workers from 10:00 - 4:00. Of course we took advantage of that! Rebeckah is really too old for babysitting, so she helped out the babysitters. They said she was a huge help.

Chris and I have done most of our shopping already and have several things on order, but we did have a few things and some stocking-stuffers to buy. So we headed out and did some shopping and then went to lunch at Pei Wei (I love that place). We did a little bit more shopping before heading home to wrap and hide the gifts before we had to pick up the kids.

This is the first year I have had this much shopping done this early in the season. Not only do I have most of the shopping done, but I have all of the gifts wrapped too! Normally we are running around like crazy people a couple of days before Christmas and doing all of our wrapping on Christmas Eve! I like the way we are doing things this year much better!

Competitions, Christmas Trees and Camera Crews

This week the kids participated in UIL competitions for their schools. They all did really great and we are so proud of them! Austin competed in calculator applications, mathematics and number sense. He placed 4th, 5th and 6th place in his events. Rebeckah placed 5th in both editorial writing and maps, graphs and charts. She placed 2nd in dictionary skills and FIRST in social studies. They haven't received their awards yet though, so no pictures. Today Hannah's school had their competition and she competed in Oral Reading. Here is a sample of what she did:

She ended up placing 3rd!

After Hannah's competition we went to a local Christmas tree farm to cut down our tree. It didn't really feel much like Christmas though considering it was 85 degrees outside! So there we were in our shorts trying to find a tree that all seven of us could agree on when we notice a camera crew filming us! They came over and asked us if they could film us cut down our tree for the news. We agreed and asked what channel they were from (thinking of course they were from a local station). Imagine our surprise when they said "We are from ABC, filming for Good Morning America." Rebeckah said it looked like we were filming a toothpaste commercial because we kept smiling so much. My brain turned to mush as they pointed the camera in my face and started asking me questions. For some reason my family made me the spokesperson. That was a bad decision on their part! I look like a complete goober! Of course AFTER we got home I thought of all kinds of things to say! I hope they don't use sound IF they use a clip of us. I don't know if/when they will air it, but the kids thought it was exciting. After we cut down our tree the kids went and roasted marshmallows and then decorated pine cones while Chris tied the tree on the van.

Sean loved the little "Sean sized" trees.

This picture cracks me up. I told them to get together and "act like they like each other". Rebeckah made that face just as I took the picture. (Sean isn't in the picture because he was being stubborn...just like a two year old.)

Matthew trying to cut down the tree.

Sean loved roasting (and eating) the marshmallows.

The kids had a lot of fun decorating the pinecones.

Hannah's birthday, Thanksgiving and an email from Iraq

It has been a long time since I have blogged. We have been busy around here with the Christmas season upon us. For now I will just update you on our Thanksgiving weekend.

Hannah's birthday was on the 21st, but it was celebrated for three days. The day before her birthday we took cupcakes to her school to share with her class. We also gave her one of her gifts that night...the High School Musical 2 soundtrack.

The day of her birthday we did our traditional cake and ice cream for breakfast before we headed to my parents' house for Thanksgiving. That night after supper we gave her her second gift....a High School Musical 2 Wii game.

The day after her birthday was Thanksgiving, so we had birthday cake with grandma, grandpa, Lisa and her family. Her cake was, of course, a High School Musical cake.
The kids singing "Happy Birthday" to Hannah.

Thanksgiving went pretty well and was fairly uneventful. Uneventful that is until I asked Hannah to wash some dishes. My dad was taking the dinner rolls out of the oven as she was filling up the sink with soapy water and all of a sudden we heard my dad holler. Somehow Hannah managed to spray my dad with the sprayer, and not just a little bit either. She soaked him, the rolls and put a little puddle in the sweet potatoes. Lisa and I thought it was hysterical, but my dad on the other hand, didn't find it so funny. Here is a picture of his pants:

The girls with their Grandma.
The boys with Justin and Ryan.

We also heard from Chris' brother, Steve, over Thanksgiving weekend. Here is what he wrote:Things are pretty high tempo here. I have 14 people working for me 6 days a week with 12 hour shifts. They handle it pretty well and I am hoping the pace slows down in the future. As for me I have everything I need and it is a lot more comfortable than the last time I deployed. I have my own living area to myself. My lower enlisted have to double up for 15 months which is a bummer but they will survive. Take care and keep the soldiers and their families in your prayers, they are the ones who really need it. Some of them come in pretty banged up or dead and will have to live with the trauma for the rest of their lives. Sorry to end on a sad note but I want people to realize that terrible things happen here on a daily basis. Before I left it seemed like the war was getting less and less media attention and more was placed on Brittney Spears. -Steve

Here is a bonus video......Justin singing karaoke!

Our Weekend Trip

This weekend Chris and I went to Denver for a little get away. Since the kids weren't staying in one place, it took a bit of planning to make sure they all got situated. Everything worked out wonderfully though, thanks to some wonderful friends.

We landed in Denver around 4:00, raced to baggage claim and then caught the shuttle to the car rental place. We were in such a hurry because we had tickets to a 5:00 showing of an IMAX movie about the Titanic at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. We never made it there because of traffic, us not knowing the area and, to our surprise, the sun started to set at 4:30! So we just went to dinner and checked into the hotel.

Saturday was our only full day in Denver, so we tried to make the most of it and fit in all we could. It turned out we only fit in two things, but they were two fabulous things. When we woke up we pulled back the curtains in our hotel room and discovered we had a WONDERFUL view! Check it out:

After enjoying the view, we headed out to Manitou Springs (an hour south of Denver) to ride the Cog Railway up to the summit of Pike's Peak. It takes about an hour and a half to get up the mountain, then you have 30 minutes on the summit and take another hour and half ride back down. At one point the front of the train was three stories higher than the back end of the train! It was absolutely BREATHTAKING on the summit!! It is just amazing. I don't really have words that could describe it and the pictures do not do it justice!

Here are some pictures of our trip up Pikes Peak:

After our train ride we headed back to Denver. We had tickets to the museum's Titanic Exhibit and I did not want to miss that. We decided to eat an early supper since we skipped lunch and looked for a local steak place along the way. We were trying to stay away from chain restaurants since we can eat at those at home. It was 4:30 (and getting dark) when we stopped at a place in Castle Rock, CO. There was a 45 minute wait!! At 4:30!! So we moved on and decided to eat closer to Denver. We found an Outback and decided we will just go there. We went in and there wasn't any wait at all. We were seated at 4:50 and told the waiter we were in a hurry. We were out of there at 5:20!! That is the fastest dinner I have ever had.

We made it back to Denver in plenty of time, so we stopped by the hotel to freshen up a bit. We headed over there and got there a half an hour early, but they let us in the exhibit anyway. It was fascinating to see how well the artifacts looked after being underwater for decades upon decades! They did a great job with the exhibit (it is a traveling one so I am sure it is the same everywhere). You are given a card with a passengers name and information about them. At the end of the exhibit you look your person up and see if they survived or not. My person was a second class girl and she survived, but Chris' person (a first class male) didn't survive.

The exhibit takes you from the very beginning of the Titanic, when it was just a thought all the way through the construction, sailing and sinking. They had a hallway set up that looked like you were walking down a first class hallway. They had a dining area set up in one room. There was also a room set up like a second class room and another hall like a third class hall with a room set up like a typical third class room. They even had a big block of ice set up for you to touch to feel how cold the water was that night. We even got to touch a piece of the outside of the Titanic. I learned so much from the exhibit that I didn't know before.

By the time we left the museum it was 9:00. We drove around a bit seeing what we could see of Denver at night. We were so tired from our fast paced day we just called it a night early since we wanted to cram in some sightseeing before we had to leave for the airport at 10:30 am.

The next morning we drove by the places we wanted to see, but didn't have time to actually go inside. We went by Molly Brown's house.

We drove by the capital building. They say there is a step there that when you stand on it you are exactly one mile high. We didn't get to do that. We also drove by the US Mint. Even if we had had time we couldn't have toured it because it is closed on the weekends. The last place we drove by before heading to the airport was Coors Field. I can't wait to return to Colorado. Only next time we will plan out more time so we can see more.

Sean and his ABC's

Just the other day I realized Sean not only knew his ABC's but he also knew several of the letter sounds as well! Imagine my surprise, especially considering I haven't even taught him his ABC's! He learned it all from a wonderful site called Star Fall. Anyway, I decided to see exactly which letters/sounds he knows and video taped it as I tested him. Here is the video:



Thank you for indulging me in my mommy brag moment!

Name that Cat

Any suggestions for a name for this cat (btw, Chris said it is a girl)?

This weekend

This weekend Rebeckah, Sean and I got to hang out together while the rest of the family went camping with Matthew's Cub Scout pack. So we spent the weekend doing a bit of cleaning and playing with Sean. When Sean napped Saturday afternoon we watched the movie Shall We Dance. It was a cute movie. Chris wouldn't have liked it, but Rebeckah and I enjoyed it. When the movie was over we went to Blockbuster and Rebeckah picked out The Phantom of the Opera and we watched it after Sean went to bed. She LOVES that movie.

Here is a clip from one of our favorite parts:


When Chris got home I asked him if he took any pictures of their camping trip. He said he forgot he even had the camera with him. UGH! They all said they had fun though, so that is good.

Pictures and a video

Here are some pictures of the kids last week at a Cub Scout halloween party.


Hannah went as a "housewife" (and no she did not get her inspiration from me...I do not wear a robe and curlers).


Sean went as a tool man.

I couldn't get Matthew to be serious enough to get a picture of him by himself. I did, however, get one of him with Hannah and Sean. As you might be able to tell, he went as a Power Ranger.

David, a friend of Austin's, went as Napoleon Dynamite.

Austin and Rebeckah didn't dress up for the party. (If you look closely you can see both of them in the picture above.)


Here is a video Chris took of Sean this morning. Sean was playing on the Nick Jr. web site and started singing along with the theme song to "The Backyardigans".

Sean's latest lesson

We were getting the kids ready for bed when Sean wandered off to the laundry room. All of a sudden we heard him yelling "HELP ME! HELP ME!" As I headed to the laundry room, Chris asked me if I needed the camera. I thought I might as well as have it just in case. Here is what I found:


For reasons unknown, Sean thought it would be a good idea to sit in the dryer. Once he got in there however, he didn't think it was such a great idea. Every time he moved the drum of the dryer moved too and that was what scared him and made it hard for him to get out. (And yes, he is only half dressed.) When I got him out I asked him if he was going to do that again and he said "Nooooooo!! It's scawy"

Sean isn't the first of our children to pull this stunt. Matthew did the same thing when he was a few months younger than Sean. Only Matthew didn't have the luxury of having a large capacity dryer, so he was a bit more cramped. Matthew was also half naked when he did that. Kids keep things interesting, don't they!

Beautiful One

Today is a cold, gray and rainy day. The only time I like these kinds of days is when I have nothing to do that day. Well it happens that today is one of those days. We have nothing at all to do. Well, I have plenty of things I could do, but nothing HAS to be done and I don't have to go outside. So today Sean and I are just hanging out playing games, listening to music and dancing around while the kids are at school and Chris is at work.

One of the songs we listened to today was Jeremy Camp's song, "Beautiful One". Sean started singing along, and as you can imagine he messed up the lyrics. The only part he would really belt out was the chorus.

Here are the actual lyrics:

Beautiful one I love you

Beautiful one I adore

Beautiful one my soul must sing.

Here is how Sean sings the chorus:

Beautiful one I love you

Beautiful one I'm a dork

Beautiful one my soul must sing.

Just because I love the song I will go ahead and share a video of the song. It is the unplugged version. He introduces everyone at the beginning, so if you want to skip that part, the song starts at the -4:00 minute mark.

He wore THAT to school?!?!

This morning my sweet husband let me sleep in and he got the kids up and off to school. This afternoon when the older two got home, Rebeckah came in the door before Austin. As she walked in she announced; "Look at what your goofy son wore to school today!!" When Austin came in all I could see at first was his shirt. He wore his Pirates of the Caribbean shirt. So far I didn't see anything wrong with what he was wearing. Then I saw the entire ensemble!! OH MY!! He wore his....get this.....his Spider Man SWIM TRUNKS to school!!!!!!

Of course all of you moms know what my first response was! I turned to Chris and said, "You let him wear THAT to school?!?!" His response was that he didn't notice what he was wearing this morning. Spoken like a true dad!

This is not the first time he has worn something I would not approve of before. He has worn his pajamas to school before. Granted the pajamas we are talking about are a pair of shorts and t-shirt, BUT they have been declared "not in public" clothes! I guess I either need to embrace his unique choices in clothing or stop sleeping in on school mornings.

Here is a picture of Austin in his outfit. Too bad he didn't wait until Friday to wear it since Friday is "Crazy Day"!

On a side note, Matthew lost another tooth. He is the first of the kids to lose both front teeth at the same time. So here is a picture of Matthew right after he pulled his tooth.

Sweeping is a competitive sport?

When Sean spilled some cereal on the floor earlier today I handed him his broom and got my broom and we started to sweep. I swept on the other half of the kitchen while he "swept" up his cereal. I had a nice pile all swept up in my half of the kitchen when Sean came over to see how I was doing. He looked at my pile and went back to his cereal (which at this point was even more scattered than before he started sweeping) and started to sweep some more. All of a sudden he threw his broom down and said, "NEVERMIND!! You win!" I had no idea we were competing.

Random thoughts

I don't have any one topic to write about, so I am just going to list thoughts as they come to mind.

~~Sean is starting to talk more and more lately in complete sentences. His speech is becoming clearer too. For example he used to call Matthew "Mabu" and now he calls him "Maffew". He used to say "Bob-Bob" for Sponge Bob, but now he says "Bung Bob".


~~Report cards came out this past week. All of the kids, but one got all A's. The one that didn't get all A's got all A's and one B. Hannah and Matthew both got the R.O.A.R. award. That is the award that goes to the student that works the hardest, is helpful, finishes assignments and has a great attitude. There is only one boy and one girl in each class that gets that award.


~~Hannah's cheerleading squad is NOT going to competition after all. I am really bummed about that since they all worked so hard and I thought they really stood a chance at placing. The reason they aren't going is because of Pop Warner's ridiculous rules. Their routine is only 2 minutes long and the competition is from 1:00 until 6:00. Pop Warner is requiring the girls to be there at 7:00 in the morning and the parents aren't allowed to go until 1:00. The girls have to sit with their coach and team mom the entire time. They are only given 10 minutes of warm-up time. I see absolutely no reason for the girls to be there for 11 hours when the competition is only 5 hours long! I realize they need to check in and all, but SIX hours to do that?!? There were only 17 teams competing, but several pulled out of the competition when they heard they will have to be there that long. We will not be doing anything related to Pop Warner next year!


Here are a couple of pictures from this morning of Hannah and her squad at their last football game.

~~Things are starting to wind down a bit around here. Monday is Rebeckah's last volleyball game. Cheerleading is over for the most part. We still have an end of season party and their coach is working on getting them to cheer with the high school cheerleaders during a high school football game. Baseball has 3 games left; two of which are tomorrow. So soon we will be down to just scouts.