Catch Up

It's been a while since I posted so I thought I would try to catch everyone up with the goings on of the Holmes' Home. We are currently "homeless" since we moved out of our house in Ohio on December 1st. We stayed in TLF for a week and have since been going around visiting family since and will continue to do so until January 15th when we will fly from North Carolina to Alaska to make a new home there for the next 3 years at least. So here are some highlights:

BJ graduated from the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences on December 5th with his Masters Degree in Anesthesia. A week later he took his board exam and passed and is now a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthestist (CRNA for short). It has been a very long and stressful 30 month program for us all and we are very proud and happy that he has reached his goal! Way to go BJ!

Right before Christmas, Savannah FINALLY lost (with a little help from Daddy) her other top front tooth. She was able to sing the "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth" song even though she wanted a whole lot more than that!

We had a great Christmas! We spent some pre-Christmas time in Kentucky with my family and then came to North Carolina to spend the big event with them. The kids were thrilled to get a Wii and have played it so much with all of the family. We've had a lot of fun. Chance was thrilled to get some airplanes (especially the F-15 and F-22's that will be flying at Elmendorf AFB) and legos and a North Carolina basketball jersey, Colton stocked up on Star Wars figures, Addison has been enchanted with her Tinkerbell movie and fairies, and Savannah had "the best Christmas ever" (in her words) after receiving an American Girl doll and a digital camera.

The day after Christmas, Chance celebrated his 11th birthday. We had a yummy birthday supper and North Carolina cake. The greatest gift he received was tickets to a North Carolina basketball game that he went to with his dad and two uncles. You've got to realize that this is a dream for him. He was able to see his idol, Tyler Hansbrough, play and create a memory that will forever be in his best of bests.

Here are the boys at the game.

We're planning on spending a relaxing New Year's here with the family and then Friday, BJ and I are taking a Carribean Cruise for 7 days. We're going to try to soak up as many UV rays as we can before we head up to the cold north!

Way to go Chance!

We attended Chance's last pack meeting here in Ohio where he received his Webelos rank along with 4 more activity pins and his Compass Point Emblem along with 2 more Compass points. That means that he has completed 16 out of 20 Webelos activity pins in less than a year. He will receive his Arrow of Light once we get to Alaska and then advance on to the "Boy Scouts". For those of you that have been through scouts or have sons in it, you know how much work this requires. We are very proud of him, and I couldn't resist giving him a big hug - it seems like we've been real partners this past year in trying to achieve this.

Trick or Treat

Bye Daddy!

We had to say "goodbye" to BJ this evening as he set off for a trauma rotation in Germany. We went out to eat at Outback before dropping him off at the airport. He'll only be gone for the month, but it's the first time we've physically been apart since he started this grad school program. I guess it's just an exercise to get us somewhat used to deployments again which will begin when we move to Alaska (within the first year, we're told). The kids already have shed tears, but fell asleep pretty easily after staying up late to watch Star Wars the Clone Wars on Cartoon Network. We all miss you BJ - stay safe, work hard, and study lots! We love you.

The Journey Begins

Chance had braces put on his upper teeth today. He has embarked on a long journey that will involve many orthodontic visits. He was a real trooper today getting them on, but is starting to feel sore already. I'm sure tomorrow will be when it really hits. He's really bummed about not being able to eat Skittles, Candy Corn, and popcorn. He was really psyched, though, about getting his own blog entry and has a picture, proudly showing the "Carolina Blue" bands he picked to go around the brackets. I told him that one day he would be glad he did this while he was young - he is questioning my wisdom right now.

First Day of School

We, at the Holmes Academy for the Gifted and Talented, finally kicked off our second homeschooling year yesterday. (I would have put up the pics last night but was totally exhausted!) We didn't have new lunch boxes or backpacks, but instead wore togas as we continued learning about the Romans. We're looking forward to a fun year of school. Colton had his first "official" day of school as well as he began preschool. It should be a challenge to try and juggle, 5th grade, 2nd grade, and preschool, not to mention Addison in the mix as well. Say a prayer for us!

Singing Addi-fly

Addison loves to go around singing CONSTANTLY. I know we have her singing on the blog already but I couldn't resist when I caught her today standing on the dining room chair doing it. She's just too darn cute! At the end, she gives a little Happy Birthday wish to her Aunt Nicole whose birthday is today :)

Happy 4th Birthday Colton!

Colton had a great birthday yesterday. We went out to eat at a steak restaurant because he just loves steak with A1 sauce (actually he loves A1 on just about everything!). We had cake and ice cream and opened presents. Aunt Nicole was here along with the rest of our family. He happily received money, dinosaurs, a spiderman toy, new baseball mitt, hot wheels play set, and his much requested "Better, Batter Baseball".

Happy 4th Birthday Colton!

Soccer Camp

Here is Savannah with her British coaches: Coach Rich, Coach Matt, Coach Nathan, Coach Dan

Savannah just wrapped up a British soccer camp this past Friday. She had a blast and learned a lot. On the last night they were each supposed to represent the country they had been given for the week. We made her a shirt for Brazil and even had a big soccer ball on the back which had "I love soccer" in Portuguese. During the night they gave them all a little soccer quiz and based on this, how they represented their country, teamwork, enthusiasm, and effort they awarded the "World Cup" to one player. Savannah won! The look on her face was priceless. She was the youngest in the whole group! We were very proud of her and she was thrilled.

Celebration

Since my mom is never able to be around when each of the kids have a birthday, she decided to give them all a group birthday party for the year. We tried to go swimming, but it was a wee bit chilly. We still enjoyed playing with friends and cousins down in Kentucky and having a big cake!

Here is Chance with his friend, Boone and cousin, Trey hamming it up for the camera.

Here is Savannah and her cousins, Jaylee and Kennedy after a quick dip in the pool.

Colton's ready for some cake.

Since it was the week of Savannah's birthday, we took her and my sister-in-law, Kristy's, neice to Libby Lu's for a makeover. They had a blast and looked beautiful. Here's some pictures, aren't they beautiful!

Addison Singing

Here is Addison singing her ABC song to Aunt Erika. She enjoyed the attention and loves to watch the video on the camera over and over again!

Week of Fun!

We just spent the past week having loads of fun with my brother-in-law and sister-in-law, Jeremy and Erika. The highlight of the week was the trip to Kirtland, Ohio to see the temple and the church history sights there. It was such a spiritually uplifting experience which has strengthened my testimony of the church. Here we are after our tour of the temple.

After we toured the temple we went to the church history sites, saw two movies at the visitor's center (one of which was Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration - my favorite of all time), and received an in depth tour from the missionaries there. It was truly amazing to be in the same places where Joseph Smith lived and received many revelations for the church. It was awesome to be in the same places where many heavenly messengers appeared to him, including Jesus! Words just can't explain the experience!

Here we are in front of the Newell K. Whitney store. All of the these buildings are original. It's amazing how well they were kept.

Here is the School of Prophets were all of the apostles met and had many visions and visits from Jesus and others. This is where Joseph would take the revelations he had received to present to the apostles. Chance and Savannah are sitting where the first apostles did.

This is the room where Joseph received many revelations, translated the Book of Moses, and worked on the translations of the Bible.

This was Joseph and Emma's room and their kitchen. This is where they had the twins that they later lost. I have a ton of other pictures that could go on for days!

We also went to the Air Force Museum:

We went to Young's Jersey Dairy where we played miniature golf, fed the goats, had a wagon ride through some of the farm, and had a small little train ride. Chance was at Webelo's camp so he missed out on this little excursion :)

We had a wonderful visit with Uncle Jeremy and Aunt Erika!