Holland turns 1!!!

A year ago, why does time move so fast?!

She loves her dad

So funny!

We are so mature at our house!

BIG C and little c

Chad taught her how to do somersaults

At least she has my hair

She would live outside if she could

Party

Happy Birthday Holland

Presents!

With uncle Grant

Favorite gift, the sucker

Waiting for the cupcake

Yummy!

Our tiny little friend Marley

Piggy Tails

Got to touch everything

We love you!

My baby girl turned one.  Time seems like sand slipping through my fingers.  As I was preparing for her birthday yesturday, I kept thinking about my labor and her birth.  Last year we had a brand new baby girl.  This little one is so full of life and spunk.  She keeps us laughing.  She loves life, she loves people, she loves discovering, she loves attention.  Everything that we as her parents sometimes forget to love.  She is such an amazing spirit, I pray everynight that I will allow her to grow up loving life and people the way she does now.  We have had some nice weather this last week and she just stands and grunts by the door until I take her outside.  Once outside she wants to touch every leaf and rock.  We went to the park this last week and Holland ran up to these little girls who were two, she wanted to do everything that they were doing.  Climb the ladder, slide down the slide, and run around.  She is so aware.  We also went to IKEA last weekend, while we were there she went up to every child and several adults to say hello, most children were in their own little world, they didn't even seem to notice that she was honking at them, she gets confused at their non-response.  Everywhere I go she is making friends, grocery store, target, post office.  Holland will get the attention of any nice person by us and then just smile, or she will grunt and grunt until she does.  So charming, that little one.

She is also so smart, I bought her birthday gifts a few weeks ago.  I hid them under her bed.  She never looks under there.  That is what I thought.  The other day I hear her behind me, as I turn, she has dragged one of her gifts from her bedroom.  Everday she made it a point to crawl under her bed and drag out one of her gifts to play with.  I feel like her toys will not be as much fun now that they are out of the box and not under her bed. 

We had a small get together tonight.  We had invited a few friends but Holland was not feeling great today so we had Nanna and Papa and Grant.  A few hours before her party she started to open all of her presents, but when it came to doing it for an audience, she seemed to have forgotten how.  This year she got some books, photo albumns, a purse that sings(she loves dancing to the song/her dancing resembles squating up and down), and a teddy bear that sings.  Nanna and Pappa got her her own soft chair, shopping cart, and a sucker.  Of course her favorite gift of all was the sucker.  We had a mini Hawaiin birthday for her.  From the few decorations to the food.  Chad went to L&Ls and we got some plate lunches/dinner, we made haupia pie, pineapple and fruit, macadamian, sunshine cupcakes, and pog.  It was yummy!  She took one giant bite out of the cupcake and then smashed it all over her tray, so fun!!!

I love Chad, I love Holland, I am extremely grateful for my little family. 
I am so proud of Chad, he has been working his tail end off.  He gets amazing grades, he deals with 9th grade hormones, he listens to a lot of criticism and advise, and still finds energy to be a great husband and father.  I wish that I could carry some of his burden, I love him!

Little Miss

Holland loves Momo

Cousins!

I can't believe that she is giving a hug!

Crazy hair, Amy showed me how to tame it!

Ailey's costume, Holland loved it

Don't be tricked, she really won't use one

Learning to walk bruises

Loving Elmo

Not sure what is so sad on Elmo

Dumping out food

Marking her trail, at least I always know where she has been

She loves the sippy

She also loves pulling all the clothes off her shelves

Crazy Hair!

Guess it is time to move the shelf higher

Good luck Chad!

Still trying to get her in those jammies

At first Ailey loved Holland, then after a few hours she kept asking me to pick her up and move her away

Playing with paper

Sorry the pictures got out of order, not sure how to fix that!

Since Holland has started walking my life has changed.  I heard rumors about it, but did not fully understand it until now.  I have posted a few pictures to show a day in the life of Holland.  It usually starts out with a diaper change, changing her diaper is similar to wrestling a steer (something I have seen at a rodeo).  Getting her to lay still for a minute is a miracle.  She has so much to see, do, touch, taste, drop, climb, push, dump out, crumble, ect...  She is really starting to like food, (mostly homemade chichen noodle soup, toast, yogurt, fruit snacks, water, and cheese) we are still working on the healthy stuff. 

We went to Boise this weekend with some of the Evans's (thanks to Rosemarie and Thurman), it was such a nice get away.  It was really nice to get out of happy valley (not entirely sure how provo got that name).  Holland loved her cousins, Adam's family and our family had adjoining rooms, Holland spent more time in their room than in ours.  She followed Ailey everywhere, and kept giving her hugs.  Holland rarely gives anyone hugs. In Boise, we swam (Chad and the kids), and ate at cheesecake factory. Chad and I got a kick at watching Holland suck the cheese off of the Macaroni, and then spit the Macaroni out.  Poor clean up crew at Cheesecake factory, we are sorry.  I also tried feeding her some strawberries, she hated them.  She now licks everything before she will stick it in her mouth to make sure that it is not a strawberry.  She still loves her sippy cup though, she is well hydrated. 

When we got home from Boise, we got to enjoy Evan (and as grandma O would say, his friend that is a girl/Hannah).  We love our family.  A few weeks ago we also got to enjoy Grandmary, Grandpa Tom, Evan, Hanna, and Devin.  It is so nice to be close(r).  Also, Congrats to Alisa and Nick and Hanna and Devin, two wedding in March, hopefully Grandmary will be sane in April! 

This last couple of months has been intense for Chad.  With school and seminary he can barely catch his breath.  I wish that there was more that I could do to help him out.  He is handling it like a pro.  Tomorrow we are headed to Salt Lake City for an interview.  We will keep you posted on the outcome. 

Although our lifes our busy with school, seminary, weddings, house planning, picking up messes we are grateful for each other and for our little girl.  She is so much fun, she brings us many laughs, and is our little  miss danger baby.

My baby is growing up!

Piggy-tails!

 All of a sudden Holland has taken off.  While I was on the phone with Chad on Jan 3rd, Holland walked across the room.  I screamed, "Holland just walked!!!" We were so excited, we spent the entire evening watching her walk, sending her from one parent to the other.  If you think that Chad and I were excited, Holland was even more proud of herself.  She was so excited that she would not nap and woke up in the middle of the night wanting to practice/show off.  It is the most amazing experience to be a parent!  She has grown up so much since Christmas, she now loves her blanket, her hair has grown enough for me to play with, and she can walk.  Getting Holland to fall asleep has been hard the last several months.  Ever since we got back from all of our Christmas traveling, she has been a gem. We say prayers, sing her a couple of songs, she tries to sing along, we say goodnight and give her kisses, we shut the door, she plays with her doll and a few other soft animal toys for awhile (you can hear her talking and grunting to them) and before you know it, she is asleep.  Melts my heart everytime! 

Cute.

Our little round-faced girl.

The last few days she has started some quirky little things like rocking herself on the ground (like those neglected kids in the orphanages/even though she is the center of attention 99% of the time) and grunting.  Don't really understand it, but it makes me laugh.  Along with her heavy breathing when she crawls, at least you know where she is, or you can tell by the trail of opened drawers with rags, pot lids, wooden spoons, ect. all over the floor. Our friend Dori has been staying with us this week while her knee replacement heals.  Holland has loved having the extra attention (again Not Neglected).  Dori said today, "that you are so lucky little one that your parents got you a Dori."  Holland really does think that Dori is her new toy and best friend and she can have Dori do whatever she would like her to do.  It will be a sad day when Dori leaves us.  We sure love our little Lop and are sure proud of all the things she is learning!