Uncle Ron

I returned yesterday from spending the weekend in Philadelphia with the Holmer family. We lost our dear Uncle Ron on January 19th at the young age of 71. The family gathered to mourn our loss and to celebrate the life of a wonderful father, husband, brother, grandfather and uncle. I was reminded once again what a close and amazing family the Holmers are, seeing them fly from all over the US on short notice to support one another.

This weekend, it was very clear how much Ron Holmer was loved by his family. The family held a memorial service on Saturday where I learned more about my Uncle Ron than I’d previously known. In his youth, he was the butcher at my grandparents’ grocery store, he spent some time in seminary, and he met his wife, Aunt Pam, through the personal ads! (Just a few "fun facts" I learned) My sisters and a few cousins gave him the title of “baby whisperer” as he had the amazing ability to quickly calm a fussy child. We have many pictures and memories of babies sound asleep on Uncle Ron’s lap. I also heard people remembering him with adjectives such as generous, kind, loving, quiet, intelligent, supportive, witty and as a person who led by example.

During his memorial service, his daughter, Chris, bestowed her hope that after the service we would “love each other a little more today than we did yesterday”. I didn’t think it was possible, but I did leave Philadelphia this weekend with more love than I took there and an enormous amount of pride in my family. I will miss my Uncle Ron greatly, but I’m so thankful for the time we had with him, the things we learned from him, and the wonderful family that he has left behind.

Happy Birthday Brayden!

Today is Brayden's 5th Birthday! Wow - time flies! It seems like just yesterday I was driving Jenny to the hospital after she went into labor. Kind of funny story actually ... I had gotten a speeding ticket only weeks before and I was on deferred adjudication, which meant I could not get another speeding ticket within the next month or so or else it would stay on my record (or something like that). Anyway, given the circumstances, Jenny didn't really care much about my driving record. "Can't you drive faster??!" she hollered at me in between contractions. She felt sure that an officer would have made an exception for her since she was having a baby.

After we got her settled in her room at the hospital and Tom had arrived, I drove over to David's house to feed his dog. I thought surely I had a few hours before my nephew would arrive. Well, we Holmer women don't waste any time having babies ... as I was driving back towards the hospital, my phone rang .... "Hi Aunt Julie" .... what a wonderful thing to hear! My Brady-boo was born healthy and cute as could be!

We celebrated Brayden's birthday last weekend with a party at a local gymnasium. Everett had SOOO much fun. He had already had a blast playing at Aanika's 3rd birthday party at Pump it Up. In fact, he had already played so hard, we had to wake him up in the car to go into Brayden's party. We worried this would make for a cranky little boy, but as as soon as he walked into the huge facility and saw all the fun things to do, he was off and running again!

water guns

One of the kids' favorite parts of the party was when the facilitator pulled out a bucket of water guns and let the kids run around the gymnastics floor with them shooting each other.

Grandkids ganging up on BaBa!

more party pics

Happy and Loud!

Pryce is getting big enough to jump in the bouncer and play in his excer-saucer ... a good thing because he bores pretty easily these days. He also likes to squeal. Here's a short demonstration:

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Blackmail photos

I'm sure these will come in quite handy when E is a teenager. We bought Brayden some hats for his birthday and E wanted to wear them after his bath ... and before he got his pjs on. He was a pretty hysterical little viking! LOL

Happy 1st Bday, Hayley!

We celebrated our niece, Hayley's, 1st Birthday last weekend. Everett had a blast playing with his cousins and meeting the new cows who recently joined the chickens, roosters, guineas and peacocks on the farm. Hayley did a great job demolishing her cake and boy did she rake in the presents! She'll definitely be stylin' the next year in all her new clothes! Here's a video montage of some of the pictures I took which also includes a video of Hayley "pounding" on her cake. Enjoy!

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4 month check-up

Pryce had his 4 month checkup on January 4th. He weighed in at 14lbs, 11ozs was 25.5 inches long which put him in he 50th percentile for both height and weight. The doctor said he's doing great and he was a pretty happy camper throughout the whole visit, despite receiving 4 shots.

Happy New Year!

2008 is already off to a fast and furious start! We welcomed the new year by welcoming friends, family & neighbors into our home for our Annual New Year's Day Open House. As always, David's feast of bbq, smoked salmon, cornbread, slaw, tater salad and black-eyed peas and greens (southern tradition for good luck & prosperity in the year ahead) all turned out perfecto and were almost completely devoured by the time our last guest said good-bye! This, of course, made chef David quite happy - as did the endless compliments which followed.

While we always look forward to the holidays, I have to admit I was ready for them to be over by the time the new year started. The month of December was incredibly hectic and all the festivities and chores that accompany them had us beat.

We were THRILLED (to say the least) to be granted a 24 hour reprieve from parenting and household chores to get away for a little R&R this weekend. We met Ben & Tracy in Ft. Worth to see Craig Ferguson perform at Bass Hall. I'm a big fan of his show, even though I rarely stay up late enough to see it now that I have the little ones. (Before E was born, and while David was traveling Mon - Thurs, I crawled in bed and watched his show just before turning in each night. This may be why David now refers to him as "my boyfriend" ... ok, I'll admit ... I do have a small crush. :)

In addition to a very entertaining show (my stomach is sore today from laughing!), we also had a terrific meal and a very peaceful night's sleep at the Hilton (thanks Tracy!)
(interesting side note - this is the very hotel where JFK stayed the night before he was assassinated).

A HUGE thanks to my Mom & Dad for watching the kiddos and sacrificing their good nights' sleep so we could recharge our batteries. We had a wonderful time!
---- Pictured above is Everett in his new Jon Deere tool belt he got for Christmas and Pryce, just being his usual happy self.