The number three.

Some of you may have noticed that I've had three blog posts every month. I cut it pretty close in January but I finally did get three posts up on the 31st. I know, February's nearly over and here I am on only my first post of the month. Don't worry, I plan on at least three. It's not that I don't have things to blog about. I have a whole list of things on my fridge and calendar. I just can't seem to find time to sit down at the computer without one of the boys coming and peeking their head around my shoulder until we're nose to nose and they're asking me to do something. I'm sure you're thinking, "What about after you've put the boys to bed?" My answer to that is, that's usually when I go to bed as well. Seriously, I've been in bed around nine o'clock almost every night this week. Now, you may be wondering where I'm even going with this whole thing. It all ties in with the title of this post. The number three. I'm pregnant. Little Holmstead number three is on his way. I had my first doctors appointment this week. I'm 11 weeks along and due September 8th. Anyway, that's the news!!




Isn't that cool!? I've never had an ultrasound so early. It was fun to see the little heart beating. We're excited about our little peanut.

Happy Birthday Austin!!

He's one! My baby is one!! I can not believe how fast the time has gone. Wow!!

Playing in the snow

Austin is such a fun boy. He loves to do whatever his big brother is doing. He loves to play with cars and trucks and even makes the "brrrm brrrm" sound when he's driving them.

He wants to eat whatever Carter is eating. Austin has been begging to eat real food since he was eight months or so. He loves chunks and pieces. His latest favorite food is peas and even if he's just eaten a full meal he will never turn down something that comes off of our plates. If I have to blow on his food to cool it down he seems a lot more interested in eating it. I'll blow on a spoon full and his eyes will get really wide, then as I go to feed him the bite he'll put his lips together and blow on it too before he'll eat it. It makes me laugh.

Austin has been walking since the beginning of December. He's now running and climbing. Seriously, this kid is fast. He'll climb on and in anything he can. His latest climbing trick is to get up on the couch and grab the TV remote. He gets really proud of himself when he does this. He's also discovered that when the dishwasher's open he can lift things out and climb on the door. (I can only do dishes if he's in his high-chair or sleeping.) He's gotten up in our window sills a few times and is constantly climbing on Carter's train table.

climbing

He's a double-fisted player. This kid is always walking around with a toy in each hand. And the two toys are almost always similar. For example, two cars, two plastic animals, two stuffed animals, two bottles, two TV remotes, two books, he's always got to have something in each hand.



We are so glad to have this sweet little boy in our family. We love you Austin!!

New Do

I finally went and got my hair cut at the beginning of January. It had been eight months since my last one. Here it is! What do you think?

Christmas 2008

Christmas was a lot of fun this year. Carter still didn't really get the whole Santa thing until Christmas morning. He woke up around 5 o'clock and came into our bedroom. I tried to get him to go back to sleep, and he did for about an hour. Then he was back up and wanted to watch a movie (his usual morning routine) but it wasn't 7:00 yet, which is when he can watch a movie. (We made this rule hoping he would sleep longer. It isn't working!) He ended up playing in his room for a little bit and then he would come in our room every couple of minutes, walk over to my side of the bed and say, "Excuse me mommy, I need something." At one point he wanted a drink. I told him to go in his room and get the cup of water I'd left there for him. He scurried out of our room and was gone for about five minutes. When he came back in he was so excited. "Mommy, there's a great big train and lots of presents. A great big train that I just walked passed. Dead Marose (Santa, in Russian) did bring them for me." It was so cute! Austin was still asleep so we let Carter play with his train while we waited for him to wake up.

They both really enjoyed opening presents. It took a lot of convincing to get them to take the wrapping paper off a bunch of them before they started to play with them all. One of the first gifts Austin opened was a rattle that Carter had gotten for him. He was totally content carrying that one toy around for most of the morning. I think my favorite thing that Carter said while we were opening presents was, "Dad, let's go gun something." He'd gotten a little gun that shoots those little suction cup darts and was ready to use it. Even better, we told him they were called bullets, (he'd been calling them "gun things") to which he replied, "Dad, let's go gun something with these gullets." Hilarious!!

The rest of our Christmas day was spent playing with toys and just hanging around the house. The boys were both sick so I'm glad it was so laid back. (By the end of Christmas week I hadn't left the house in two weeks due to sick kids. Goo!)

One thing that really surprised me was the after effects of Christmas. For three days Carter woke up at 5:00 wanting to go get a drink and see if there was a train waiting for him in the front room. Seriously, there was no getting him back to sleep those mornings so I just sent him out to play with his toys. Crazy kid!

My favorite thing from this Christmas, and something I hope to make a tradition, is that Zach and Carter decorated and undecorated for Christmas. Yes, you read right. Zach and Carter dug the tree out of our storage closet and set it up, we all put the ornaments on, and then the day after Christmas Zach and Carter undecorated the tree, took it down and packed it away. It was wonderful!! I really think this is our new Holmstead family tradition.

It's a Christmas Miracle!

I finally finished our Christmas Stockings!! Well, the four that we need this year that is. The other three just need to be bound which I hope to do in the next couple of months. I started this project in October 2007 thinking they would be done for that Christmas. That didn't happen. Being 7 months pregnant and chasing a 2 year old didn't leave me with much energy or time to tackle the project. Don't get me wrong, I started. I think I even got the stars pieced and the batting cut. I thought for sure that I would have had them done sooner than last night! Whatever, they're done before Christmas and that was my goal.

Does this look comfortable to you?

I started collecting pictures for this post in November. It just cracks me up the way kids can sleep anywhere and in any position. At night before I go to bed I check on Carter. Some nights all I have to do is peek in and leave his door open (so his room doesn't get too cold). Other nights it's a little bit of work to get him all snuggled into his bed.

This is the first time I decided to take a picture.

This is the very next night.

This is my favorite of them all. He decided one day that it would be a lot more fun to sleep with his head at the other end of his bed. The first night we switched directions I put that green pillow over his fire truck so that he wouldn't smack his head on it if he rolled off his bed (a valid concern). The night of the picture above, while Zach was putting Carter to bed Carter informed him that he was going to sleep on the green pillow. Zach told him it would be better to sleep on his pillow to which Carter replied, "Ok, I'll lay right here (his pillow). But when you go out I will sleep over there (the fire truck pillow)." And that's exactly what he did.

Brrr!

Doesn't just looking at this picture give you goose bumps? Yeah, I took it from our front room window. That vast expanse of white out beyond the trees is Lake Michigan, and yes, it's frozen over. It pretty much shows you what this week's weather has been like: freezing! Because of our wonderful weather the kids and I have been somewhat confined. To stretch our legs today we went down to one of the big hallways in our tower. Carter rode his bike and Austin pushed his walker. As we were sitting on the warm radiators looking out the huge windows the boys began tapping on the windows. Then they would lean their heads against the glass. Then Carter gives the glass a big lick. After which he cocks his head to one side, turns to give me a thoughtful look and says, "Hm! It tastes just like chicken!" What a goof ball!!