Joining the Blogging community

Well, I've finally done it. I started a blog. I hope no one is expecting too much because I'm not promising a lot. I have no idea how often I'll get updates posted and lets face it words are not my forte. That being said, here we go...

We are the Holmsteads.

ZACH just graduated from University of Chicago Law School, took the Utah Bar this summer, and is currently clerking for Judge Frank Easterbrook here in Chicago. His Clerkship will last a year and then we're not exactly sure what we're going to do. We may go straight back to Salt Lake and work for Jones Waldo or we may stay and work somewhere here in Chicago for a few years. We don't know. He really enjoys his job and I'm loving the 9-5 hours he's working. Way better then the crazy law school hours we've had the last three years.

MELISSA I'm a stay at home mom to our two boys, Carter (almost 3) and Austin (7 months). My days are filled with keeping Carter entertained, Austin out of trouble, and the housework somewhat caught up. I also try to squeeze in some time to work on one of my many projects. Right now I'm trying to finish sewing my Christmas stockings and learning to tat. There's always a lot going on and never a dull minute.

CARTER loves cars, trucks, firetrucks, cement trucks, anything with wheels basically and to "play" games. Here's how Carter plays a game.
Step 1: pick a game out of the game closet
Step 2: empty out all of the pieces, move them around a bit and tell everyone else playing how to move them around
Step 3: tell whoever is playing with him (usually mom or dad) to pick it up while he goes to pick out the next game he wants to play
Carter learns quickly and is doing really well with Russian. (Zach only speaks in Russian with the kids so that they'll know two languages.) It's really cool to be at a point where he can speak it back and his pronunciation is getting better too.

AUSTIN does not hold still. He is quite the little mover and shaker. He now stands himself up on or against everything and anything. He is such a happy kid. He squawks when he's got himself stuck somewhere(under the stroller, for example), or when he's hungry/tired. Most other times he's totally content. His love for moving has made nap time and bed time a bit of a challenge. He'll be exhausted but as soon as I lay him in his bed he's up crawling and then standing before I've left the room. I end up repeatedly going in to lay him back down until he's too tired to get up.

Well, that's the Holmsteads in a nut shell.