Hershey!

We made an overnight trip to Hershey on Sunday. It was a great weekend to do it, since it would be a good time for Jeff to decompress after finishing wrestling season, and since we had Monday off, it worked perfectly.

We went up Sunday morning, and met Kadi, Pete and the kids at Chocolate World. Jeff and I have never been to Chocolate World, but the girls had, and it was so cute! We did the little chocolate tour ride, sampled some chocolate, had one of the most delicious milkshakes ever, and of course...shopped for useless souvenirs for the kids! After Chocolate World, we headed to lunch, then to the Hershey Lodge with our fingers crossed for an early check in.  We were pleasantly surprised to get right in! Our room was super close to the pool area, and the kids were swimming within minutes of being in the room! The Lodge just opened a little indoor water park and it was perfect for the kids (and the big kids!) We all wore ourselves out by swimming for hours, then we had dinner at the pool, since that was included in the package that we got.  Anna and Max were fast asleep before 7, and the other kids weren't too far behind them!

We started Monday morning with more swimming, before checking out, grabbing a quick lunch, and then heading back to reality!

We are so thankful for the opportunity to get to do fun things like this with our family. It was an awesome experience for the kids!

Life Update

Hi friends!  All is well in the Holmes household. We are busy, but happy! The kids have had such a smooth transition back to daycare, and I am so grateful for that. Max has been a happy boy and his "teacher" seems to really think he's great, which of course, makes me smile!

We have kept a very tight bedtime routine with the girls, and have them in bed at 7:30 each night.  Jeff and I both wanted to get Max on that same schedule, but since his last feeding was usually between 9:30-10:00, we were hesitant to try it.  We took a leap of faith the other night, fed him a tiny bit more at 7:40, had him in bed before 8:00, and let him put himself to sleep.  The first night was a bit of a challenge for me, because I have a hard time listening to him cry, but Jeff keeps me calm, and we made it through the night. (and in reality, Max did great putting himself back to sleep after only a couple of minutes) The next few nights that followed were better and better.  Last night I put him to bed around 7:50 and I didn't hear a peep out of him until 4:45. He was able to calm himself down, and dozed back off.  It is our hope that he can make it until 6:00 am, and we think as he gets bigger and is able to move a bit more, he'll do it!

The girls are still obsessed with their brother and enjoying doing anything they can to help! They are both growing up so fast and becoming so smart and their personalities are really shining through.

I think we are all looking forward to wrestling season coming to an end, although Jeff has a great group of kids and he is really enjoying them.  It is time consuming though, and it's always nice to have an extra set of hands around here!

And because posts are more fun with a picture, here is Kristi and Max.  He sure loves his Aunt Kristi!

6 weeks

Today Max is 6-weeks old and we celebrated by starting daycare!  Today was the big day that the girls went back to school and Max made his daycare debut.  The morning was very smooth, but I still didn't get a picture of the kids.  Maybe tomorrow I'll do that.

All three kids had great days, and they came home pretty tired!  Claire told me that when nap time was over she just wanted to keep her eyes closed because she was still tired!  They napped every day that I was off, (Praise the Lord for that) but even though we tried to stay busy around the house, there's nothing more tiring than the first day back at school with your friends!

We feel thankful to have a wonderful place for our kids to spend their days.  The girls adore their teachers and they learn so much, which makes me happy.

I received this picture of Max today from the daycare director.  It seems like he was enjoying himself!

2016 in review

Since I wasn't here for much of 2016...actually, I was barely here for any of 2016, I wanted to recap our year.

January
I baked cookies for a wedding and was able to attend that wedding in Nashville.  It was my first trip there, and I had an absolutely wonderful time. I did actually write about that trip, and you can see that here.

We had a massive and memorable snowstorm.  I also wrote about that. (Most likely because I had lots of time on my hands!)That can be found here

February
I spent so much time in February baking cookies.  so.many.cookies. It was fun and exhausting all at the same time!  Wrestling season also wrapped up, so it was nice to be able to see more of Jeff!

March
Jeff was able to attend the Division 1 Wrestling National Championships in New York City with some friends and right before he left, I told him I was pregnant.  (Obviously no one else knew for a while after that, but I figured Jeff should know before he left!)

We also celebrated Easter in Florida with my parents.  The girls had a great time and Jeff enjoyed being able to play some golf.  We all enjoyed being able to walk outside without a jacket on!

April
I celebrated birthday number 33!

Jeff's family came for a quick visit.  We had beautiful weather and spent some time playing at the farm, which was so fun, especially for Dylan and Alaina!

Apple Blossom was a bit early this year, typically we celebrate in May, but Kristi and I ran the 10k and had fun at the parade with lots of friends!

May
I got a phone call from the daycare shortly after I dropped the girls off for the day that Anna fell (was pushed) and split her lip open.  They were sure it needed medical attention....and they were right!  Jeff and I went together to assess the situation and because I had State Testing obligations at work (and didn't know just how serious it really was) Jeff took Anna to Urgent Care and I went back to school. (Yeah, I was a wreck. Total wreck)  Urgent Care promptly sent them to the ER, saying the injury was too complicated for them.  Long story short, I left school to be with Anna and Jeff.  A plastic surgeon had to stitch her up, all while she was put to sleep, because of the delicate nature of the job.  This kid rocked the whole time.  She was so sweet to everyone and didn't shed a tear at the hospital until they put a bandaid where they took the IV out.  Some days the scar on her lip looks worse than others, but we are so grateful it was not worse.

We celebrated Jeff turning 37!

We traveled to Syracuse for Memorial Day Weekend to visit with our family and friends.

June
We started some major renovations in our house.  That is another story for another day, in another post.  The renovation was a LONG and exhausting (and emotional, very emotional- well, for me, not really for Jeff!) process.  I am thrilled with the result, getting there was tough! (knocking walls down calls for a little wall art prior to the demo!)

Claire went to VBS for the first time.  She LOVED it.  She learned so many wonderful things, and taught Anna all the songs she learned, since Anna wasn't old enough to go.

The girls and I also visited Kadi for a few days.  The kids always have so much fun playing together.

July
We found out early in the month that we were going to have a boy in November!

We traveled to Ocean City, Maryland to vacation with Jeff's family.  We had perfect hot beach weather and enjoyed our time there.

Jeff and I celebrated our 7 year wedding anniversary.

August
We traveled to my Aunt Nan's in New Jersey so Jeff could "cash in" on one of his Christmas presents,  which was attending the Subway Series with Pete.  One night they went to Yankee Stadium and the next they went to the home of the Mets, Citi Field, to see some great baseball games.  The girls and I enjoyed being spoiled by Aunt Nan and Uncle Andrew, eating lots of wonderful food, of course!

I began year 11 of teaching, while Jeff started year 13.

Our little Anna turned 3 on the 17th. We celebrated with Rapunzel cake at Jake & Katie's because our house was (still) under construction!

The girls started gymnastics once a week and had the best time. (We had to take a break once wrestling started and Max arrived, but we will definitely get them back into it.)

We hosted baptisms for our church, in our pool, and Jeff chose to be baptized, which was a nice blessing.

September
The girls did a round of swim lessons, which was Tuesday and Thursday, and kept us really busy since gymnastics was Monday nights. (Anna certainly didn't look like she fit in with her class! haha!)

We FINALLY finished home renovations. Finally.

October
The Hilchey's came for a visit, and while Jeff and Pete golfed, we took the kids to Disney on Ice, then out to lunch, Claire got her ears pierced, then we went to the American Girl Doll Store.  What a great (and tiring!) day that was!

Claire invited a few friends from school to go horseback riding to celebrate her birthday.  She asked them to bring items she could donate to the animal shelter.

Claire turned 5 on the 31st!  We celebrated by going trick or treating after dinner! Claire was Pocahontas, and Anna dressed up as Rapunzel.  They both had a great time!

November
Claire donated her hair!

Jeff began his 5th year as the head coach of the Millbrook Wrestling Team.

We said goodbye to Bella on the 19th, which is to date, probably the worst day ever.

My parents joined us for Thanksgiving.

I was due the 24th, Thanksgiving Day.

Our boy, (who wasn't named for a while after he arrived) Max, arrived on Monday, November 28th at 12:46 pm.

December
We adjusted to being a family of five!

We had visits from the Holmes and the Hilchey's.

We celebrated Christmas!

Cheers to a Happy and Healthy 2017!

Bowling!

Kadi, Pete and the kids made a spur of the moment visit, and we were all very happy to have them.  We went bowling one afternoon, which was the first time for the girls.  They really seemed to like it, and the grown ups had a pretty good time too!  While they were here, we celebrated the New Year a bit early and we also celebrated Kadi's birthday, which is on the 10th of January.  The kids had a great time playing together, and enjoyed being outside, even though it was only in the 40's (which they said felt warm!)