How to Holder- Explorations of the Expanding House of Holder: Settling in...finally

the owl is slightly higher than the very center of the picture

The last few months have been uneventful on the homefront! Probably the craziest thing that happened to the house would be that we had a small owl chilling out in the tree by our deck, about 15 feet from the kitchen window for almost a week. He left for a few days, but came back and is still currently there. There was an issue with some pipes outside, way out in the backyard, but it turns out its our neighbor's and not ours. Great for us and really, really not good for them. It's kind of exciting to really start focusing on home improvements instead of home repairs.

painting the deck...with water

Jennifer is almost 18 months old, which means she'll get to go to nursery at church for the second and third hours. I took her in for about 20 minutes this past Sunday so that it won't be so scary when she stays by herself in two weeks, and I think she's going to enjoy it. Toys, friends, music, and snacks- it all seemed like a much better deal than trying to sit still on mom's lap in Sunday school. She was really upset when we left, which I think bodes well.

One of her favorite reading spots

Her favorite thing to do is definitely to read books. Every morning after she eats breakfast she starts bringing books to the couch to read together. We read about 20-30 minutes after breakfast (which is pretty impressive that she can focus that long) and then probably another 15-25 minutes scattered throughout the other parts of the day. I'd say she's almost addicted. That's not even counting the times she looks at the pictures on her own. She's very curious about the world around her. She likes to point out letters whenever she finds them. She's a great eater for her age, and broccoli is one of her favorite foods. As in, she will eat so much that she'll throw up if you don't watch her. We've even started *super casual* potty training. She sits on the potty every night before she gets in the bath. No luck yet, but I'm sure eventually something will happen. Her favorite animal would have to be a three way tie between dogs (she barks back whenever she sees one), ducks (that go gwag, gwag), and alligators (they go "chomp, chomp" which you do by clapping your hands with your arms straight). Oh, she also loves, loves babies. Whenever she sees one at church she'll give her favorite bear to the baby and just wants to give it a hug and watch it. Hopefully she will feel the same way about her baby brother in July!

Sean is staying busy with work (of course) and put in about 25 non-billable (meaning he doesn't get credit for them) hours last month- normally its about 5 each month. One of the partners left the firm and an associate from his group joined her at a new firm, so now they've got even more work to share between who's left. Of course this is stressful, but we really are so grateful that there's plenty of work for Sean and that he has a job. He has a recruiter calling maybe once a week, so it's very reassuring and we feel very blessed. Sean has also started going to a man book club, which seems pretty cool. He is also learning about drywall. We got a new light fixture to update the awful one in the downstairs bathroom, but it was too small for the hole. So, Sean sawed out (I think he used an exacto knife, haha) some drywall and put in a piece to make it smaller. Luckily, there was a friend from church who came over and was able to give him a pretty thorough tutorial. There are quite a few people at church who have been willing to give us some advice or help with house stuff, which is awesome, because we don't know very much. He's such a great dad, too! Jennifer is always so excited when she hears the garage door go up when he comes home, and runs to the door waiting to see dada. Then she'll give him a big squish hug, complete with grunting noises.

the one stain to rule them all: post my efforts

I've started doing yoga again. I couldn't find a gym that I liked that had babysitting out here, and it's hard for me to get myself to do it without actually going to a class, but I've finally started doing it a few times a week. I've also started writing again, which is good. That was a skill I definitely wanted to keep up, even/especially when not in school. I also have learned about ink stains after a ferocious battle went down in the washing machine between a pen and about 6 shirts and a pair of pants. I got out most of the smaller stains, but big ink stains are seriously nasty and bleed like crazy. I've also been busy trying to get ready for the baby. I'm about 27 weeks along, so there's still time, but I just remember getting so tired the last month or two with Jennifer, so I'd like to finish sooner rather than later. The nursery was the room where all of the stuff we didn't unpack went, so I've got to relocate that.

After she saw her new bed she found her phone and then got on and started "texting'

Jennifer's getting evicted from the crib after baby boy is a month or two old, so I found a great deal on a really cute white sleigh toddler bed. She also needed a new carseat since she's about to outgrow the one we've used since she was a baby (and because the new baby will take that from her, too), so I've scouted those out. I've had to get all new baby clothes, even though people gave us so much for Jennifer (I don't think I even bought her any clothes until she was 6 months old), but they are all very pink. Not that boys can't ever wear pink, but it will just be easier for me if I don't have to explain to people that he's a boy! I think I've got enough clothes to make it a couple of days without doing laundry- if I remember correctly newborns spit up and blow out pretty frequently, haha. So, I'm excited getting my mind, body, and house ready for this baby:)

Here's some random pictures and also a video of Jennifer practicing ballet:
http://youtu.be/JxCiumCxqns