Halloween

Last year we started the tradition of letting one of the kids choose a theme for our families costumes.  Last year Carter chose batman.  Carter was Batman, Austin was Robin, Tessa was Catwoman, Zach was the Joker, and I was Harly Quinn (Jokers, jester looking helper).

This year it was Austins turn to choose.  He chose Star Wars(it's talked about, in some capacity, daily).  Zach was Han Solo, I was Leah, Carter was Luke, Austin was Jango Fett, Tessa was an Ewok, and Eli was Yoda.  At our ward Halloween party they had a photo booth so we actually have pictures of us all together.  Wanna see them?  Well, here they are.

You're welcome!

Home

Well, we're officially grown ups.  We've got a mortgage.  That's right, for the first time in our lives Zach and I are living in house that is actually ours.  We had been looking for almost a year before we found it and everything went through just under the wire.  From going under contract to moving in it was about four weeks.  It officially became ours on September 27th and we moved everything in on the 28th (we also cleaned out of our old place and handed in our keys that same day).  Zach was at the new place telling the movers where to put things and I was cleaning out our old place when I got a call from Zach.  He informed me that the kids were playing in the backyard when all of a sudden 5 other kids just showed up.  Before he knew it there were a handful of kids in our house and Carter and Austin had run around the street to check out 3 or 4 of the houses that belonged to some of the kids.  Just what we were hoping for.

We no live just a little north of the city.  Our house is on a dead end street with a bunch of families and kids.  When the weather's nice the kids all run around and play.  The boys love it!  Tessa too.  The back yard is fenced in so I can send them out while I make dinner instead of them circling my legs wining about how hungry they are.  It's glorious! 

The day we moved in a tree up the street fell across the road and blocked everything for a few hours until a crew came out and cleared.  Because of that we checked the trees on our property.  Sure enough there were three large 60 foot trees in the yard that were dead.  Sweet.  That became our first big project, to find someone to come remove them because there's no way we could do it ourselves.  It was quite amazing to watch the crew work.  The first branch on these trees were probably 20 feet off the ground.  I asked the kids how the worker got up into the tree and Carter said one of the guys wrapped a rope around the tree and put his feet against the trunk and worked his way up into the tree.  Once he was up there he would tie branches off and cut them while the others on the ground worked other ropes to make sure the huge branches fell where they wanted them to.  To load up the largest trunk pieces they had a guy bring his truck with a crane on it.  He then masterfully used that crane to pick up and place the pieces precisely into the back of the truck like a big tetrus game.  It really was amazing how nimble he was with that crane.  As soon as the tree crew drove away the clouds opened and there was a huge rain storm.  We're talking sheets of rain.  This helped us learn that the edge of our back yard turns into a pond when there's heavy rain.  Perfect.

Introducing.....

the newest member of team Holmstead,

Eli William.

He made his grand entry on July 16th making everyone wait a week past his due date. Labor however, went rather quickly (3 1/2 hours).  He's my biggest baby so far weighing in at 9lb 10oz and he was 21 inches long.  After 24 hours in the hospital we were both able to come home.

The kids are smitten.  Let's face it, we all are.  Carter can't see him without telling me he's so glad that I had a baby or that Eli's "sooooooo Cuuuuute!" or something along those lines.  Austin want's to hold him all the time.  Tessa has to know where "baby brother" is at all times.  She even tries to dictate his schedule, telling me when to feed him or when he needs to go to sleep.

Everything is going well and we're glad he's here.  Welcome to the team Eli!!

Taco box

Earlier this week a chunk of our plaster ceiling fell.  The workers scheduled to come work on it this morning.  They said it was going to be pretty dusty work so Zach and I decided it would be best if the kids and I weren't here while they worked.  It's rainy so going to the park wasn't an option.  I decided to take them to the library and Target (to pick up a Fathers Day gift).  The kids had a good time at the library and we maxed out my library card and had to put some books on Carter's card too. 

At Target we got a couple of random items on the main floor and headed upstairs to find a Fathers Day gift for Zach.  The last couple of Fathers Days gifts have included something LEGO.  Zach likes it because it's something fun that he can do with the boys.  The boys love it because they practically get to pick out a toy for themselves even though technically it's for their dad.  The boys were all ready to go that same direction this year but they couldn't agree on anything and we really don't need anymore LEGOs right now.  So I told them we were getting him something different.  After a little complaining they agreed.  We ended up getting some games that we can all play as a family.  The last item we needed to get were some tackle boxes, but we're not going to use them for fishing.  We're hoping that they'll help the boys keep the LEGO's we already have picked up and somewhat organized.  When I told the boys we needed to find some tackle boxes Austin asked, "What's a taco box?"  I corrected him saying not taco, tackle, like football players do.  The whole time we were at the store Austin called it a taco box, tack-o box, or a tockle box.  And he didn't just say it a few times, he was singing some song he'd made up about needing a tack-o box, trying to find a taco box the rest of the time we were there.  I couldn't help but chuckle.

The 80's

Today at school Carter had a performance titled "Blaine does the 80's".  It's a fundraiser that the school does every year with varying themes.  This year they were supposed to dress in 80's attire.  I couldn't come up with anything from Carter's existing wardrobe that would work so off to Old Navy Tessa and I went while the boys were at school.  Luckily? Unfortunately?  I don't know which it is but a lot of the styles from the 80's are coming back so it was not difficult to find him a highlighter green polo shirt with a bright yellow lion embroidered on it.  Done.

Fast forward to tonight when Carter was getting dressed for the show.  He put on his bright green polo and some jeans that we then pegged.  Some bright yellow socks, an orange sweater over his shoulders and some gel in his hair, to give it a good wave, and his costume was complete.  He was stoked.  He kept looking in the mirror and saying, "I look soooo 80's!"  My favorite line of the night came from Austin though.  He said, "I don't know if I should say you look ridiculous or stunning.  (brief silence)  I don't even know what stunning means, I just heard it on Dinosaur Train."   Then he walked off.

The End

Eat

This morning when Tessa woke up I asked her if she was ready to eat or if she wanted to go play.  She responded that she wanted to go play.  A little while later as I was doing some things around the house Tessa came and found me.  She yelled "EAT!!"  I said, "Can you ask nicely?"  "Peas eat" she responded.  I told her sure she could have some breakfast.  Then I asked her what she wanted for breakfast.  She paused for just a minute and said, "cookie?" while raising her eyebrows and smiling really big.  She was kind of upset when I wouldn't give her a cookie but calmed down when I pulled the strawberries out of the fridge.

I made cookies on Monday and all of the kids ask multiple times a day if they can have one or two.

Twofer

 Yep, todays post will contain two stories in one quick post.  Enjoy.

First story, we'll title it "Hewp (help)"

On Saturday I'd put Tessa down for her afternoon nap.  As Zach and Austin were getting ready to head out to t-ball their ruckus woke Tessa.  She hollered at me "Mom" as usual and then went silent.  I figured she'd fallen back asleep.  A little while later she started crying, "hewp......hewp" and it sounded a little muffled.  I went in to see what was going on and found here in, what I thought was a hilarious predicament.  She had pulled her pajama shirt up over her head and it got stuck because her arms were still in the sleeves.  She couldn't get it back on or off, so she started calling for help.  Also, inside her bed was all of her hair clips.  She'd gotten them out of her drawer and was playing with them all which had kept her quiet for so long.  Silly girl!

Story number two, we'll call it "Talents"

On Sunday our Family Home Evening lesson was on talents and weaknesses.  Zach was leading the lesson and at one point he asked Austin to list some of Carter's talents, which he did.  Then I listed some of Carter's talents.  When we were ready to move on Carter said that he had a few more that we had forgotten.  We repeated this activity for Austin and his talents too.  Zach said that whenever Carter said something he thought Austin was talented at, Austin would raise his eyebrows and shake his head yes, in total agreement with what had just been said.  Then Zach asked the boys to list some of my talents.  He asked Austin to go first and Austin said that I was really good at doing the dishes to which Carter exclaimed, "Ugh, that was what I was going to say!"  They proceeded to list off all of the chores I do around the house.  (ie: cooking dinner, dusting, folding clothes.....)  One of them also said that I was really good at eating eggs.  During the lesson Zach never asked them what they thought his talents were so I asked them while we were getting dinner ready.  They said things like, he's good at building with legos, and he's good at putting batteries in their toys.  All things that lead to them getting something for themselves in the end.  It was all pretty hilarious and we should have video taped it.  Maybe next time.

Ralph

I was going to title this post "Ookie Pukie" but it seemed a little too gross.  I'm going to have to be honest and say that's exactly how this last week was.  Gross.  Our house was hit with the dreaded stomach flu.

It started with Zach on Sunday.  He left church after sacrament meeting, came home and crashed in bed.  He stayed there for the majority of the week.  He even had to miss his mock trial (KITA) that his firm puts on in DC because the morning he was supposed to fly out he couldn't walk from the bedroom to the front room without getting light headed.  On Friday he finally felt well enough to go into work.

Austin got the stomach flu around midnight, Sunday night.  He came in my room, woke me up and told me he didn't feel well.  He didn't bother to mention that he had thrown up in his bed and that it was all over him.  That was the beginning of the laundry marathon.  Sheets, bedspreads, towels, clothes, so many things needed to be washed.  Austin did fine Monday, no throwing up.  Early Tuesday morning we began round two.  Again, he threw up while he was asleep so I had more laundry.  Then Austin was fine the rest of Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.  He even went to school and a birthday party on Friday.  Saturday morning I woke up at 5:30 to Carter running into my room saying, "Austin's throwing up in his bed!"  Sweet.  This time was the biggest clean-up.  It had dripped down the wall by his headboard and puddled under his bed.  He was fine the rest of Saturday.  I'm sure you can understand why I came to dread the night last week.

Carter got in on the action too.  He woke up Thursday morning but he made it in the toilet. Hallelujah!  That's the only time Carter threw up.

Tessa had a mild fever Sunday night and was fussy and grumpy for a few days.  Thank goodness that's all she got. 

Last week was exhausting!  Caring for four sick individuals and all the demands/requests that come with it had me feeling pulled every direction and quite grumpy at times.  My "To Do" list for the week stared at me from the fridge with nothing crossed off it for the majority of the week.  Unfortunately I let that make me grumpy too.  Does anyone else feel like no matter how carefully you plan or schedule, things never go anywhere close to what you plan?  It seems like my schedule is regularly canceled out or trumped by someone/something else.  Anyway, I'll stop my wining now. 

I tell you what, I am very grateful for a washer and dryer in my apartment and the fact that I never caught the bug.  I'm also glad that everyone seems to finally be over the stomach flu.  We'll see what this week brings.  Over and out!

Ready. Set......

I just put Tessa down for her nap.  Something funny happened that I wanted to write down.  Normally I would write it on the note pad I have on my fridge.  The one that only Zach, myself and the occasional dinner guest get to see.  Today I decided to quickly post it here on the blog, because Zach made a New Years Resolution for me to blog more.  Anyway, short story made long, I was following the usual sleep routine where Tessa & I rock and snuggle in here room for a minute before I put her in bed.  I sat down in the chair and said, "Here's your fuzzy, and your binki, and now your blanket and you are set."  She quickly pulled her binki out of her mouth and shouted "GOOOOO!", because in our house that is almost always what follows "set".  The boys do a lot of racing, be it cars or themselves, and Tessa has caught on to their "Ready. Set. Go." phrase that starts them all.  She's a quick one! (pun intended)

Tessa

I was going to do a big update post.  I even started it two weeks ago.  I just never felt like I had enough time to put it all together so I'm scrapping it.  I've decided to do a bunch of little posts instead.  It will help me feel like I'm accomplishing more.  I figure I should start with Tessa because she's changed the most.  Ready?  Here we go....

This is the most current picture I can find on our computer.  It's from early December and her hair's a mess.

She is all girl.  Anything can become a bracelet or a ring.  She loves stuffed animals and soft fuzzy blankets.  She got a tea set for Christmas and is always ready to have a tea party.  When I'm eating breakfast and can't come to the other room for a tea party she brings me all the cups and saucers demanding we have a tea party.

She started walking around eleven months and talking around one year old.  She will now mimic anything we say whether it's in Russian or English and says a lot of words on her own.  Some of my favorite words she says are applesauce, sweet potatoes, and avocado.  She uses "bla-bla" to make the ending sounds and it's adorable.  She has also recently started saying yes instead of yeah.  It comes out "yesh" with an emphasis on the "sh".  She is saying or understanding something new every day.  It's always amazing how quickly these little ones pick up on everything.

Tessa loves to eat.  Whatever anyone else is eating she wants some.  If she sees someone eating something she starts saying, "bite, bite, bite" until she gets a bite.  She sounds like the seagulls on Finding Nemo.  On Friday night we were out running errands and stopped somewhere for dinner.  As we walked past the restaurants windows heading toward the front entrance she started saying "bite!" and pointing to everyone's plates.

She's also a great big tease.  Her brothers will be folding their clothes and she'll walk over and squat down by the folded clothes to look them in the eye.  Then she grabs the folded clothes and runs or shakes them and throws them back on the floor.  Lately she'll look at us, lean forward at the waist, and then start slowly stomping toward us, like we do when we're going to chase her.  When we act scared she giggles like she's the funniest girl around.  Then she waits for us to do it to her so she can run away.  She has been such an fun addition to our family.  She makes me laugh every day.

Here are a few more pictures of Tessa growing up.

1st air and water show