Texas Holmers' Thanksgiving

The Texas Holmers gathered at Jenny's new home yesterday to enjoy our Thanksgiving Feast. We were happy to have Molly in from Los Angeles with her boyfriend, Traynor. Jenny's new boyfriend, Brian, was also present and took on the very important role as turkey chef.
Also pictured in the slideshow is Brian's son, Brendan, and Molly's friend, Lauri.
Much love from our homes to yours this Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We celebrated Thanksgiving day at the Rankins. We had a wonderful meal and the boys LOVED playing outside all day.

Pryce's first haircut!

We took Pryce for his very first haircut this afternoon. This milestone event wasn't nearly as traumatic (for me) as it was when we took Everett for his first haircut. In my defense, Everett did have some beautiful curls that were snipped off and I was six months pregnant and full of hormones and, thus, emotions! Pryce was quite a trooper, very cooperative and we were pleased with the end results.

What a handsome boy!!! In case you're interested, here’s the post from E’s first haircut

Pryce on the slide

I had to pick P up from school today because he had a fever. I'm thinking it may have just been the result of receiving a flu shot and two vaccines at the doctor yesterday.
Does this look like a sick kid to you?

Pryce on Slide 11/19/08

Everett's school pictures

Everett was a bit grumpy on picture day, so his pics didn't turn out quite as well as I'd hoped. I do like the last one.

Everett has blossomed so much since he started his new school just 5 months ago. At the time, I could hardly understand a word he was saying and this challenge of communicating resulted in much frustration ... both for him and me! Now he has really progressed in using short sentences and is even so polite ... almost always saying "please" when requesting something. At least once a day I hear "Mama, can I have some milk please?" And when I bring him something, without even being prompted, I often hear "thank you Mama". Yes, I have become "Mama" ... except at bedtime when my name is often shortened and I am simply "Ma" ... usually in the context of "I love you Ma". Be still my heart.

Potty training continues to be a bit of a battle. Mostly because I don't think he likes to be told what to do (wonder where he gets that?) and so some days he does his "thing" and sometimes he doesn't. We've tried the usual bribes which sometimes work, however now he's come to expect it. He often leaps and bounds out of the bathroom while joyously proclaiming "I get CANDY!". Last night he found some stickers and I heard him asking Pryce if he'd like one. I exclaimed, "I'd like a sticker, can Mommy have one?" ... to which he responded "if you go pee pee in the potty you can!"

We had E's very first parent-teacher conference last month. The first thing Miss Brandi said about E was "he's so shy!". It's funny because nobody would guess this kid could be shy if they saw him in his own comfort zone at home! Luckily, it usually doesn't take him long to warm up to a new situation and new people.

During the P/T conference, we went over a long "report card" that indicated what level he was at for various tasks. The levels were
I = Introduced
B = Beginning
D = Developing
M = Mastery

I thought I'd share what his teacher says he has mastered at the beginning of age 3:
- Plays cooperatively with other children (I beg to differ when the other child is his brother!)
- Plays alone for extended periods of time
- Stacks 3-6 cubes
- Strings large beads
- Walks with confidence
Some other notes from the teacher:
- Everett has a good grasp on simple matching of shapes and objects, big and little
- Everett has begun to verbalize his wants and needs more frequently. He has done an awesome job on Share days.
- Everett really enjoys all our art and music activities.

We really love Miss Brandi and are really pleased with all Everett has learned! He's always so happy when I pick him up from school.

Pryce's School Pictures

These are Pryce's very first "school pictures" taken last month. He is growing up so fast and no longer looks like a baby. This makes me a bit sad, but it's so fun to see him grow and learn new things every day. One of his teachers, Miss Amy, told me that his favorite book at school is one about a farm. He loves to see the animals and has actually started making the appropriate animal sounds when he sees the cow and sheep. He demonstrated this for us at home the other night. He has quite a nice "baaahhhhhh". He also has his monkey sounds down pretty well ... I think he's heard these enough from his Dad and brother that it's no surprise he'd be a good monkey himself!

He's also shown quite a interest in books. Many times when I pick him up from school he'll be sitting by the bookshelves with books scattered about himself and the teachers will tell me he's been reading out loud. He does love flipping through books at home, and unlike his big brother who would just gnaw the heck out of the board books and tear out the pages of the paper books, Pryce is very gentle with the books when he "reads" them.

Pryce has also recently discovered dancing. He loves music and immediately starts bopping his head and body when he hears it. When we are in Everett's room he points up to the CD player and when the music starts he likes to climb on to the toddler bed that's still in the room, clap his hands and jump around. Of course, this is always a bit nerve-wracking as he will inevitably fall off and bump his head (just like the monkey song goes!) but you just can't keep him off that bed! This morning on our way to school, UB40 came on the radio. Turns out that P LOVES reggae! He squealed and couldn't hold his body still and then just couldn't contain the laughter and grins. I guess we'll need to break out some Bob Marley to put in E's CD player next!
His pics turned out pretty cute ... although I do wish they would have brushed his hair! His little tuft of hair on top matches the stuffed animal!

Proud Mommy Moment

Phone call I made to Everett’s school this morning:

“Hi Tori, this is Julie, Everett’s Mom. I forgot to mention this to Miss Brandi when I dropped E off this morning …. Will you please let her know …. My brilliant son swallowed a penny yesterday …. Soooooo … I don’t want her to be alarmed if she “discovers” it today. Additionally, I’d kinda like to know when and if it does “show up” so I will know that it’s not stuck in him somewhere!”

Halloween on the Farm

I just realized I forgot to post any pics from Mark & Helen's annual Halloween party at their farm. This year it fell on October 11th which was also Helen's 30th birthday! As always, we had a great time and the kids looked very cute in their costumes. You can see all the pics here.

My little Picassos

BaBa and GiGi gave Everett an easel for his 3rd birthday. I didn't think Pryce was old enough to use it yet, but when his teachers told me how much he LOVES doing art at school, I figured we'd give it a try.


















They were pretty cute painting together ... for almost 10 minutes and then Pryce wanted Everett's paints so there was a bit of a scuffle.

Pumpkins @ the Arboretum

Stephanie and I took the kids to the pumpkin patch at the Arboretum on the Monday before Halloween. It was a fun outing ... we really should get out there more often! Our photo shoot didn't go quite as well as I'd hoped, but here are a few of the pics I took.

The rest of the photos are in my Picasa web album.

State Fair

We went to the State Fair on October 13th. It was our first time to use our new BOB stroller and it ROCKED! It almost pushes itself!

Pryce had his first ice cream cone ... do you think he liked it??

YUM!!

Everett & Pryce both LOVED seeing the animals.

This little piggy ...

Brenda & Ray Rankin Celebrate 50th Wedding Anniversary!

We helped Brenda & Ray celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary on October 25th by throwing a big party for them at their new home. We had about 80 guests and it was a wonderful event! All of the photos can be seen here.
Additionally, I put together a picture video montage of Ray & Brenda growing up, falling in love and snapshots of the 50 years of marriage (and 4 children and 8 grandchildren) that followed. We watched it at the party and everyone seemed to enjoy it. It was a fun project to work on. Everett saw me with some of the pictures of David when he was Everett's age and Everett insisted they were pictures of him! They do look incredibly similar! The video can be seen here. (It looks a lot better on the actual DVD).
Happy 50th Anniversary Brenda & Ray! You are still so in love and devoted to each other and I'm proud to be a part of your wonderful family!