$75 at a garage sale!!!

So Awesome!!!!!!!!

Our Brick Project

Alright so here are the pictures you have all been waiting for! My back yard!

Here it is still full of so much dirt we can't see straight. Pretty much all that dirt went to mom's house.


Henry and Jeremy removing dirt so they can replace it with the gravel mixture.

here is the back yard relatively dirt free, and tampered. You can notice the foundation for the brick wall in the back. We weren't expecting that to be there or to be so close to the surface.
Theres Sam. Isn't he cute!? Also you can see that Henry put down the black non grow paper, or whatever it's called... and than cover it with gravel. Than he put the rest of the gravel against the wall behind Sam.
Isn't he so cute! He is trying to figure out the pattern I chose. At first he wasn't too happy. I guess that's always how it is on day one of brick laying.
This is a picture after day 3. Leveling is something that takes time to figure out, and Henry is a perfectionist. Sorry I forgot to take a picture of day 2.

Yeah the bricks are done, more or less...we have a little more work to go, but the kids are finally allowed back there!

This is from the sliding door angle. Yes that is how big or I should small our back yard is.

Ballet

The girls have been taking ballet since early February. Rebekah has been asking since she was three or four to take lessons. I finally have gotten them in, and they love it. We go at 12 on Fridays, so everyone there is from a homeschool family. It makes it fun for me too since I get to talk to other moms about what curriculum they use and fun things for homeschool families to do around town. The recital is coming up on May 7. It's the evening of Rebekah's baptism. Talk about a busy day!

I love it when all the little girls are lined up at the barre. They look so cute with their toes pointed and matching leotards!

Here she is watching herself in the mirror while she waits her turn.

Yes, it's a happy thing to go to ballet!

Isn't she cute with her little pointed feet. She always looks so serious when she is at the barre. That is some hardcore concentration going on!

Easter and Break Up

Break up has arrived.
Nettie knows how awesome that is.
It brings a lot of happiness to my life, and my children. We spent time today just sitting on the porch watching the snow melt. Life is exciting in Alaska I tell ya! Hahaha...really though we did sit there checking out all the bare spots that have appeared in the last two days. Last week the snow in our back yard was above my knees. Today you can see dirt. 15 hours of sunlight at 50 degrees will do that. :) I took this picture at 10:45 at night with no flash. How cool is that?! I can't wait until summer really arrives. On a side note I also saw the first mosquito of the season. I might need to invest in DEET.
That was a huge mosquito.

We have had some crazy sickness since the end of February. Sariah got strep then, and when Jacob left at the beginning of March all six kids and I came down with it. Lucky Jacob missed it! Then John had to go to the hospital, and he had pneumonia to go along with the strep. Evidently Sariah and Lizzie both still have strep. I think I should get tested to. Lizzie ended up in the ER last week. She had strep tonsillitis, a stomach/intestine virus, and bronchitis, and dehydration due to puking and diarrhea and being unable to eat. Fun stuff. Then Joseph got the stomach virus and started in on all that, I have it (not as bad though, whew!), Simi had it, and John has another sickness again, and he had roseola last week. We have never had to take a child to the hospital before we moved here, and have been three times in the last six months. Twice in the last month and a half. I guess it's our turn. We're trying to get over all this before Nettie and the family come next week!

We spent Easter at home since John is still snotty and we are trying to STOP THE SPREAD OF SICKNESS! Jacob spent Easter at work, but was able to come home for lunch and dinner.

Look at that cutie slobbering into his Easter egg! He finally has enough chub on his body that his cheeks are pudgy

We missed the egg hunt at play group on Thursday due to sick kids, so we had our own hunt at home on Saturday afternoon. Can you tell how much fun Simi had?

Lining up in anticipation of the hunt. I think I need to put some kind of decoration on all these white walls in our house. :)

"Look at my eggs!"

Look at that cute little face!

I love this girl!
Happy Easter Everyone

Catching Up

I haven't posted in several months. Our internet connection was so slow that it would take literally hours to get a few pictures up, so I took a break. So here it is Mom: pictures of the Little Holts! :) This may take a few posts to cover the last four months. If I repeat any pictures I'm sorry!

The kids started skating lessons in January or February. There was a whole lot of falling down at first. Now the older three can skate. Well, Lizzie can too, but she doesn't want to give up the cones!

After a big snow fall Rebekah dug herself a tunnel on the side of the driveway while Jacob shoveled.

Jacob shoveling out his car so he can get out the next day. This was one of the largest snowfalls in a two day period in Fairbanks. We get 2" a day on average, so the 18"-2' we got was pretty awesome.

The girls at skating with their friend they met there, Isabella.

Simi was making so pretty weird faces, so I just had to take a picture. He is such a ham lately.

Bekah is ice skating on the street to our old house. The snow and ice has finally started melting this last week. It is soooooo nice to see pavement again. When I took this the snow had melted the week before on our street until it was down to the 2" layer of ice that we got at Thanksgiving.

The big kids helping to move things in at the new house. They all LOVE the stairs. They spent the first few days sliding down them in their sleeping bags.

Our first blue egg from the Americana chicken

Today we got five eggs a first for that many and bestest of all one was blue ...Just in time for Easter!

Happy April Fools!

Yes, we made yummy delicious mini hamburgers for lunch! ;) Mom's special recipe. They tasted pretty good. And I got to eat as many as I wanted. I remember being little and wanting to eat them, but Mom was always making them for something else, and we didn't get very much. :) Doesn't it look good?

Something from school. Comparing longer and shorter. The boys had fun. Travis just before I cut it all off. I guess I'll have to take a picture to see the comparison.

In his favorite wool suit, in his special Travis stance.

Naomi's owie. Tustin ran over her hand with our vacuum and it looks like a major burn! Poor girl. She was pretty tough about it.

I made the boys quickie capes. No sewing involved, just hot glue for the velcro. My underwear superboys.

Happy April Fools Day.