Maddie and Lexi's pumpkins

Madalyn and Alexis also wanted the grand moment of picking their pumpkin on video, so here it is. I don't see anymore large pumpkins growing, but we have at least 25 little ones.

Who's That Up in the Tree?

The new thing this week was climbing the tree in our front yard. They couldn't get enough of climbing up and hanging out up there. After school one would say, "Does anyone want to play 'climbing in the tree?' " We've gotten rain almost everyday this week, so they'll stay up there until the thunder and lightning come. Then they'll climb down and play on the porch swing while watching the downpour. Then off they go to splash in the puddles. It's been a wonderful, relaxing week.

Scary Teeth

We went to the Watermelon festival here in Winterville last weekend and enjoyed a very small parade. The kids didn't seem to notice how much it lacked compared to Irving, and loved it anyway. They got a little bit of candy and these teeth which were handed out by the Halloween Store. They wore them after church on Sunday and when Nathan got home from work, they ran up to him and showed him their teeth, laughing uproariously. They were having so much fun with them, that I had to snap a picture.

Playing Outside

We love Thomas!

Thomas is so fun! He's walking really well and loves to carry things around the house like empty milk jugs, books, the little ice chest, or anything that has a handle. He also likes to walk around with the phone on his ear, saying, "allo?" I love the way he looks me in the eye, says, "Mom!" and then proceeds to jabber really seriously and point to stuff. It's hard to keep a straight face when he's being so cute. I also love the long hugs he gives me periodically throughtout the day. He's a very cuddly baby. He loves to get into the paper towels and unroll them all from under the cabinet. He also enjoys climbing up on the table and getting into whatever's there--leftover cups, food, the kids' paints, etc. Needless to say, we try to keep the table cleaned off now! We love our little toddler and it's so much fun seeing him learn and grow. I can't believe how fast this year has flown by!

Thomas' First Birthday!

Sunday, August 10th was Thomas' first birthday. Our friends, the Robinsons, invited us over after church to see their new house, so we celebrated with them and had a great time. (That's Carmen's arm in one of the pictures, not Alexis.) Earlier I tried to get some shots of Thomas wearing the little suit Spencer wore, but he wouldn't stand still for the picture. :) He either sat down or walked away really fast.

Hammer two, three four!

I think that's what they're saying. :) This was taken after Thomas in the puddle, so watch that clip first. We enjoyed a nice cool evening after a rain shower while our home teacher helped Nathan fix his brakes on the Geo. I love North Carolina storms!

Puddle splashing

This was taken back in July when Thomas was just learning to walk. He was really enjoying splashing in the puddles, but I couldn't get a great video of it.

Kylie's loose tooth!

Kylie's top teeth have been loose for a little while now and I've been hoping they will fall out in time for her baptism in September. I think that'll be so cute! Looks like it just might happen!

Halloween anyone?

Here are some videos from earlier this week when we decided to pick our two ripe pumpkins. Our pumpkin patch grew out of our compost pile where we threw our old pumpkins out last November. Kinda funny! We also have a patch of mini pumpkins growing too. It's so much fun and the kids check on them daily. We're carving each child's name on them, although you can't see Spencer's in the picture. So far only Kylie's and Spencer's are ready, but there's no hurry. October is still over 2 months away!

Kylie and Madalyn off to the beach! (Not really!)

Spencer and Alexis playing in a new carseat box

Relaxing

Now that we're home from our trips, it's nice to relax and not have places to go. The kids are busy playing and I'm enjoying preparing our lesson plans for the upcoming school year. I'm also scrapbooking a lot and just enjoying having time to play with the kids. They are at such fun ages.

Summer at the Holladay's

We've had a wonderful summer with two big trips. Our first trip I took the kids down to Florida on a train. It was so much fun! The kids were great and we really enjoyed our new adventure. We stayed with Nathan's family for 2 weeks, enjoying Disneyworld (thanks to Uncle Seth who got us in free), the beach, shopping, a little family reunion, and just hanging out. The kids loved playing in the tree house/mansion and in the kiddie pool.
Our other trip Nathan was able to come along and we drove up to New York State. We stopped by the Washington Temple, Gettysburg, and Hershey, PA to do some sightseeing. It was the best car trip ever! Then we got to our good friends, the Webbers, house at 4:15 am. We stayed with them a week, enjoying playing with their 4 sweet children. I loved talking, shopping, and cooking with Julianne while the kids enjoyed playing at the park, the kiddie pool, and dress up. Then we all went camping and enjoyed that new adventure. It was a first for our family and it wasn't too dull, seeing we had several run-ins with racoons, a skunk and rain. :) But the food turned out great and it was a beautiful state park--the Grand Canyon of the East. We also got to see Niagara Falls and the historical sights in Palmyra, including the pageant. We left at 11pm after the pageant and drove home through the night, arriving home at 1:30 on Alexis' 3rd birthday. We hadn't been sure about spending money on a trip right now, but after praying about it and feeling like we should go, we did and it turned out better than we could have imagined! I'm so grateful we got to go.

Purpose of our blog

Hi! My friends have encouraged me to start a family blog, but since I already send out a family newsletter every week, I thought it was unnecessary. However, this week we got a new digital camera for our 9th anniversary and I thought it would be fun to post pictures and videos on here. So I'm finally starting a blog! I probably won't write much since I already do the newsletter (let me know if you want me to send you it), but I'll try to keep you up to date on what's happening at the Holladay house.