Holder House

Video Killed the Radio Star

Here it is - the latest vid of the kids. 

Peace Out :-)

A Seriez of Snapz.

I have been accused of only putting "good" pix here on the blog, so I am going to defend my honour by putting a whole whack of the snapshottiest snapshots you have ever seen. 

You are going to see the good, the bad and the ugly....but I want to show that I do try and take time to capture the special moments, the crazy moments and the moments no one cares about except for me.

So here goes...

Some Art By Samuel.

And here is a series of odd and different things I have found written around the house:

OOOOOOkkaayyyyy......

Now here's some good old fashioned cookie decorating:

Now here's a whole bunch of the L-Man, rashy face and all.

Now, for some really snapshotty snapshots...Easter! Including Lucas' first experience with chocolate...based on his reaction, probably not his last!

Well, that's it for now!

Enjoy!!!

Bird's The Word.

Or caused some people around here to say some words, anyway. 

BAD words.

Let's start at the beginning, which is of course, always the best place to start things.

It starts with the Christmas wreath on our front door.

What does this have to do with birds and bad words you ask?

Well, pretty much everything.

You see, said aforementioned bird had decided to build a nest in said, aforementioned wreath.

So, the other night, Jim opened the door, and this dumbass bird flies in. Or maybe not so dumb, it is, after all, 72 degrees in the house, and colder than a witch's you-know-what outside.

You can imagine the pandemonium which followed the entrance of Senor Bird in the house. Screeching. Laughing. Running. Pointing.

And that was just me.

The kids totally flipped out! There's a BIRD flying around in our house!

Well, Jim set to work trying to catch the bird. He tried to get it down from our upper window sills, which only succeeded in driving it upstairs. He finally got close enough to throw a towel over it, and that bird was caught. Just like that. Lickety split.

So he takes the bird downstairs, opens the door. Sets it free.

And the effing thing flies right back into the house.

Enter a string of VERY bad words.

This time, Senor Bird proves to be a little more elusive. He has headed upstairs, but we can't quite locate him. He has gone to ground somewhere in my bedroom we deduce, clued in by the bird crap all over the silk lampshade on my nightstand.

We decide to give up for a short while, sure in the knowledge that the bird can't hide forever. 

We put the kids to bed. They all request closed doors, as they all have slight fears that the bird may peck/crap on them during the night.

I decide to get ready for bed as well, head into our little toilette room when, like an angry god after a sinner, who arises out of the floral arrangement on my toilet tank all set to divebomb my head, but Senor Bird.

We've got him cornered!

There's nowhere he can go! 

So I shut the bathroom door and yell for our resident bird catcher extraordinaire.

He does it again!

He catches the bird!

And this time, he CLOSES the front door before he lets the little sucker go.

Without further ado, I present to you, Senor Bird, and his nemesis, Bird Catcher Man.

Senor Bird, are you ready for your close up?

And yes, this is bird crap.

My Rebel Angel.

Here he is.

My Jonah.

Wants to be a Rock Star.

Likes PINK.

LOVES Thomas the Train.

Is a speed demon on anything with wheels.

When he saw Georgia with the Angel wings on, he said "Mommy, can rock stars wear angel wings?"

Translation...is it OK for me, a BOY to wear angel wings?

Of course!

So with a killer b-ball hat, a major 'tude and some strategically placed tribal tats, I present to you:

My Own Rebel Angel.

And So It Begins...

Time for Some Random Snapshots.

  Why? because I'm still sick. And lazy because of it. So no fancy photographs today.

Today, we are going to celebrate the old fashioned, good old snaphot.

Dammit.

Daddy and Georgia at sunset in the backyard. And in case you were wondering what made her look so sticky.....

Here's a clue. And GK wasn't the only one involved.

Ok - here's a few more pulled from the archives...hmmm...what will they be? Oh yeah! Some driveway art!

Ok - now for the favourite family pastime (according to the boys, anyway) - Wrestling!

Hmm....what else can I find? Hey! how about some L-man with a big old zit?

And here's Samuel on his first day of First Grade!

Here are Samuel and his peeps at the bus stop

Getting on the bus for the first day of ALL DAY school....sniff sniff...

Well- that's all for now - hope you enjoyed the fruits of my laziness!

Blown Back By the Eastern Winds...

We are back.

Summer Zephyr 2008 has officially come to a close.

I hope you all missed me!

We had such a wonderful time, that I am unable to even express it in words right now.

And many many thanks to my wonderful sister and brother in law who hosted my wild horde of children for an entire month, as well as to my father who flew up and back just to share the fun of the marathon drive with me. I LOVE you all.

Thank you also, to my family who hosted us on our stops there and back again. I love you too.

It wouldn't be a post without a few pics, so here are a few from the trip. There are many more, and plenty of stories to go with them, but I'll get to it another day.

 

A Canadian Family during American Thanksgiving.

Being about 38 weeks pregnant during Thanksgiving this year, somehow I just didn't feel like making a big, ol' Thanksgiving turkey...so Jim busted out the hotel points, got us a room downtown, and we did the big parade and then stayed overnight. Now, any big jaunt like that with young kids is bound to be challenging but we had a great time anyway!

We bundled up to watch the parade, then hit the Palmer House Hilton after for a bit of brunch. Georgia didn't like the cold so much so we didn't make the whole parade, but at least we saw the Elvis impersonator. I mean, what's a Chritmas parade without an Elvis impersonator?

Hallowe'en at the Holders!

Now, if you know me, you know that Hallowe'en is one of my favourite holidays. I like it better than Christmas. I mean, it doesn't cost as much money, you get to pretend to be someone else, and cheesy decorating is not only tolerated, but openly encouraged! What could be better than that?

This year, after MUCH debate (we went from Power Rangers to Transformers to Thomas the Train, etc etc etc) the boys were Darth Vader & a Jedi Knight, and because Georgia still fit into last years's costume and didn't really care, (and because I didn't feel like spending another forty bucks on a costume), she was a  witch again. I was bad mommy for awhile as I ruled against matching lightsabers (hey - I've been a mom of boys for awhile, and been around the block. I knew where this light saber business would end up - in the emergency room), but they got over it once they saw the annual Hallowe'en feast.

Here are a few snaps from our Hallowe'en this year - we are still getting used to the fact that we aren't sweating in our costumes!

Kickin' It Old Skool at Navy Pier

Well, time grows short before bambino numero quatro arrives, so even though Jim was out of town in Arizona this weekend, I decided to get some quality time in with the current munchkins before I am a leetle more tied down.

And if you know me at all, when it comes to day trips, I am a "go big or go home" kinda gal.

So, I packed 'em up and hit downtown Chicago and Navy Pier for the day. We had fabulous weather for late October - close to 75 degrees although really, really windy.

Navy Pier had a Hallowe'en event called "Navy Fear" going on, so we thought we'd check it out. So, we did the Ghostly Gardens (which mostly involved bounce houses), the big Ferris Wheel, the standard choo-choo ride, a lovely overpriced lunch, and even made a jaunt over to the Magnificent Mile. We played in Grant Park, and climbed among the many sculptures.

The kids were really good, even when we did the walk to Michigan, which isn't far for me, but pretty far for little legs.

I know things are going to get crazy here pretty soon, and I will be in full blown survival mode, so it was nice to be able to do something fun and special with my babies. I love them so much and feel blessed to have them in my life.