It's true...

not only did I eat too many Easter treats, but my lovely new chubbiness is also due pregnancy. Wahoo! Baby numero dos will be joining us in October. Yea for babies and no more nausea!

also...

A funny little blog stalking story... so on Sunday I was baking cookies. I think cookies are the most boring thing to bake 'cause you can't just put them in and come back 30 min later...it's every 8-10 so you can't really do anything else... so I thought a little bit of blog stalking would pass the time.... well... over the course of an hour of amusement my peanut butter chocolate chip cookies turned into nice chocolate looking chocolate chip cookies... I guess that's what I get for blog stalking...

NYC trip

For spring break we decided to take a quick trip to NYC. It was a whirlwind trip (I think we only spent about 4.5 hours in the city), but still a blast!

The Statue of Liberty from the Staten Island Ferry.

Brooklyn Bridge

Manhattan from the ferry.



Corner of Wall St. and Broadway



Interesting fellow doin' a jig on the corner.



James and Ethan at Times Square



Ethan was afraid of a pigeon in Central Park. He was a little bit jumpy the whole time we were in the city.



We stayed at a KOA in PA.

Afterward, we went to visit the Bradford's in Hershey. We had a great time visiting with them. Ethan loved it there! This picture is at the park we went to for lunch. Ethan loves cantaloupe!

Facial hair and young chef..

James has his board exams on March 17th and 18th, so in order to save time every morning he has not been shaving. Actually he's never grown facial hair so it's just something to do. He's going to shave it off this coming Sunday, but I hope he grows it out again. It's growing on me. Really, I do like it. It looks good on him.




Ethan likes to help us with the dishes... well actually he likes to take the dishes out of the dishwasher and play with them on the floor. Last night he pretended to be cooking. It was fun to watch. Don't worry they went right back in the dishwasher.

We are so grateful that we have been able to go to the park twice this week! Hooray for springtime! And my daffodils are poking out. Hooray for springtime! It's just about time to begin our tomatoes. I'm so excited! I love the springtime!

Some cute pictures...

Ethan is such a ham sometimes and it is so cute!





Ethan loves smoothies... I think James does too...

This is what Ethan does while Mommy cleans...

So, for Christmas James gave me a new camera. This is him wishing he hadn't...

Christmas!!

Merry Christmas! This season is so busy and so wonderful! I love love love Christmastime! This week has been super busy. On Tuesday we had a party at our house. That took some work, but it was worth it to enjoy our friends. Wednesday we went to the Nutcracker. I loved it!! I don't think James loved it exactly, but he went with me anyway.

Tonight we had an enrichment meeting at the church. Some ladies sang a beautiful song. They sounded great! I can't remember the name of the song though. Tomorrow we're going to the see the Wildlights at the Zoo with the youth. Whew! And sometime between now and then we get to pack! Fun times in the Holt household. And on Saturday we get to fly across the country to be with family. That is was I am most excited about! (The being with family part, not necessarily the flying with Ethan:) ) Anyway, have a Merry Christmas!

Football rivalries...

So... the bad news is that BYU lost. boo hooo...


The good news is that OSU won... wahoo!! Although, I must say it was a bone chilling game... okay not so much the game, we pretty much expected them to win... but the weather! It took me a really long time to feel my feet (not just my toes, but my feet) and then I wasn't so sure I wanted to feel them. Anyway... it was pretty cool to see the band do the script ohio. And the hot chocolate I snuck in wasn't too bad either. The game itself was more interesting in the second half... too bad I was too frozen at that point to really care who won or lost... no I am not a die hard fan. If it were just up to me I would have left after the first quarter (they were going to win anyway, right?). I think the best part was warming up the car afterward... don't get me wrong, it is always more fun to be in the stadium and feel the energy and excitement of the crowd. And see the crazy lunatics who wear nothing in the freezing cold just so they can paint their bodies... anyway... it was fun! And now we're off to Thanksgiving for fun with family and super yummy food... yeah!! Oh yeah... Sunday was Ethan's first day in nursery... it was interesting... He cried for awhile after I left, but that is to be expected. I do wonder how long he would have cried though, if my friend, Julia had not stayed with her daughter and comforted Ethan. Anyway... things are great here in OHIO. Happy Thanksgiving!!

Pumpkins and Skunks

A few weeks ago we went to the slightly over-hyped Circleville Pumpkin Show. It wasn't all it was cracked up to be, but we still enjoyed ourselves.

Ethan enjoyed some roasted pumpkin seeds...

And this sucker was the largest pumpkin at the show... WOW!

and these are all the seeds from it's insides... okay maybe not. On Monday our family home evening activity was pumpkin carving. Here are the guts. For some reason we didn't take a final picture... hmm...




This week James had some help studying for boards (they're in March, YIKES!)



On Saturday night we went to our ward Trunk or Treat and chili cook-off. It was full of cute kids and yummy chili! I think the little skunk was adorable. And yes, sometimes he is very stinky!



The Critter Control man sure did his job, he caught himself the cutest little skunk in the world.

After the party we went to the OSU vs. Penn State game. On the upside we were able to go with some friends, without a kid and had yummy candy. On the down side OSU lost an uneventful game accompanied by every unintelligent way to express yourself known to mankind (courtesy of our fellow OSU fans). Needless to say there were some sleepy Holts in Sacrament Meeting this morning (not mentioning any names, but his drooling is not due to baby teeth).