Two years and still going strong!

January 31st marks the 2 year anniversary of the day Mat left his job of 10 years to venture out on his own. With me 4 months pregnant, and Mat serving in the bishopric, not to mention the economy had started to take a nice little dive, this was not an ideal time for me. He had been feeling that he needed to leave his job for a few months and I was quite reluctant. We'd almost taken the plunge a few years prior and I just wasn't at ease with it. His job was pretty good and I liked security. When it came down to it though, neither of us were happy with him working there anymore. At the first of January we set a timetable that if things that he'd been promised didn't go through by the 31st he would leave. The day he quit I spent crying A LOT! They gave him the option of taking 2 weeks or that being his last day. He wanted nothing more than to get to work for himself so it was a LONG day for him. He kept calling me saying he just wanted out. It was hard for me because they had been great to us over the years and he just seemed so determined that this change was going to be great for our family. I decided that this was one of those times that I really needed to trust in him and know that he was being inspired and so I just gave in. From February 1, 2008 neither of us have regretted the decision at all. Immediately we saw Mat more (and not because of lack of work) and when we went on family vacations I didn't mind if he had to answer the phone concerning work. If he worked late it was benefiting us which turns out to be fabulous! There are still times that I have to remind him that there needs to be a balance but he is an amazing guy. We feel truly humbled by how we were led to our decision and are grateful beyond words that we have had the work we needed come our way. We know that it was the right time and the right type of business for us. Mat still gets the opportunities to build cabinets (which he loves) but he is a master at finishes. Although I am a silent partner I feel very blessed to be a part of a great company. Here's to many more years in business!

Caleb's Party

After many years of crazy insanity at our house with elaborate birthday parties, we discovered that the kids had just as much fun at different venues instead, and without the mess. Although I loved how cheap and easy the aquatic center was last year for Caleb's birthday we opted for bowling this year. Caleb was very sweet when we asked him to make up his invite list. He said he would only invite 7 kids so it wouldn't cost very much. We told him he could invite as many as he'd like. In our neighborhood 7 kids wouldn't even cover the invites for the street we live on. However, he took the extra invites to school and invited random kids there. So while we had a few no-shows we ended up with 21 kids! It actually worked out. I'm not sure why I didn't just hold the entire party at the bowling alley but we came back to our house for presents and cake.
Caleb and Mat went to order the cake from Lins. Out of the entire book Caleb wanted an Oreo cake. No frilly toys, just something tasty for him apparently. I LOVE pictures of my kids blowing out their candles with their cheeks all full of air. :)

Caleb with friends.

Half of the party.

Waiting for everyone to show up so we could go!

I like to remember the party favors we make. Although these weren't the most elaborate we've done, I thought they turned out pretty cute and they were CHEAP, which I like as well.

Caleb's sweet cake.

Tomorrow is Caleb's actual birthday and I can't wait to give him his gifts from mom and dad. We are getting all of his scouting stuff for him and giving him his "big" present at dinner tomorrow. We bought him an electronic keyboard that's been sitting in our camper for the past two months. Now he'll be able to play the piano whenever he wants, even when the baby's sleeping. Woot woot.

Eight years ago... :)

It's the eve of Caleb's 8th birthday. Eight years ago today the Dr. told me that I would have my baby boy that night. So I went walking! I had already walked a couple of miles (including walking up and down Foremaster Ridge) to get to the Dr.'s office but I was determined. I took Bailey in the stroller and walked from Winchester Hills into town and then around town by my parents house. I figured I walked a total of 15 mile that day. Now, Caleb wasn't due for 3 more weeks but in my mind he was a week late. Mat and I figured logically that he would have had to be conceived the month prior to when the dates showed to have even conceived to begin with. At 9:00 pm we gave up walking. I was exhausted and wanted a hot bath and a good nights sleep. The Dr. said that he would come that night and I trusted him so I figured I needed some rest. My sister had premature twins 4 months prior and a few weeks before lost one of her baby boys. It was a hard time for our family and we all just wanted to experience a healthy baby. My sister called and chewed me out for lying around. She couldn't understand that if all I needed to do was walk around to have the baby why would I be resting. After a long phone argument with her I went to lay down. I slept for 8 hours in complete deep sleep until 6:00am. I woke up with sharp, LABOR PAINS! Mat was worried to see me in pain and I calmly told him that it was just time. It was funny to see him digest that it really was. Bailey had spent the night at her aunt Sandi's so off we went. After 4 hours of getting hooked up and having 2 epidurals (since the first one didn't work) We delivered a healthy baby boy! Caleb was 8lbs 5oz.! I knew there was no way he could be 3 weeks early. We had a tough time deciding on a name. I had even forgot that we had told various people various names until the following Christmas when his great-grandmother addressed his gift to a "Gavin". Apparently she relys on the computer to help remember grand kids names. When it came down to it Mat and I never actually called him any other name than Caleb and couldn't. Mat's brother had passed away the previous year as well and we wanted to honor him somehow so Caleb Mathew Holt shares the initials of his uncle Corey Merlin Holt. That was the only way I could get Mat to name Caleb after him. It all just felt right. We have enjoyed having Caleb be a part of our family. He is such an incredible kid. He plays the piano really well and loves sports. We used to tease him that he must be deaf because he never seemed to listen to us. Well... parents of the year officially will never belong to us. In first grade he was tested 3 times and found that he could hardly hear in his left ear. He even pointed to his ear and told his teacher he can't hear out of it. Hmmm, great parents we are! Caleb is very bright. He LOVES drawing. He can sit for hours and concentrate on one thing. This is something I could never do! He is truly such a blessing to our family! We love you Caleb!!!

Caleb's 1st day of kindergarten.Acting silly at Disneyland.
Caleb's 4th birthday party.
The first time his big sister held him. :)
Happy Birthday buddy! We love ya!

It's Great to be Eight!

We just attended our ward "Eight is Great" night. We never made it to Bailey's since we were vacationing at the time, so this was our first. It was so neat to see the excitement on the kids faces and see how grown up they clearly thought they were. Caleb turns eight next week. I can't believe how grown up HE is! He is such an example to me. As I was taking pictures of the kids for the primary bulletin board I kept commenting on how nice they looked and such. After a few had their pics taken Caleb told them (quite loudly) that his mom said that on every one's turn. It got quite a chuckle and I'm sure my face turned red. He's a great kid. For his birthday I asked him to make up an invite list and he said he wanted to only invite seven kids because he didn't want it to cost very much. He is the ONLY kid of ours that thinks that way. Before he was even born I had a feeling that he was a special kid. LOVE him! Here's all the kids giving a cheer for turning eight. Cute bunch of friends.
Dad and Mom with the kid of the hour.

Two of my favorite people EVER!

Although Caleb turns eight next week we have to wait to hold his baptism until the end of March. He was very gracious about it until Mat told him we could just hold it in Hawaii since that's where we'll be one of the times we'll miss. He's going around telling everyone that he's getting baptized in the ocean in Hawaii. Sorry bud, as cool as it WOULD be, you'll just have to be surrounded by all of your family that loves you!

So Grateful

Do you ever catch yourself in the middle of something and saying "How did the pioneers manage without this?" Well, from Ziplocs to central air I say it a LOT! I'm also known for saying "I wish I was a kid today, they have all the good stuff." I often wonder how amazed someone around a 100 years old must be with all of the advancements over the last 100 years. Airplanes, cars, computers, etc. Our kids live quite the plush life. When your biggest concern is that the headphones for the DVD player in the car need new batteries, I think you've got it made. When I was a kid you were cool if you just knew someone that had a Nintendo. Super cool if you had a friend with a Gameboy. On Christmas I logged on to Bailey's Facebook page. All of the kids her age were listing what they got for Christmas. The majority got Iphones, Itouches, and Nintendo Ds's. I can remember my mom's first beeper. It was SO cool! Of course when she moved up to owning a cell phone (you know the kind that needed its own suitcase) I was blown away! Of course the coverage was awful and it was a brick but it was a phone without needing to be attached to the house. Run off a satellite in space! I love reading fictional pioneers stories. While they are in fact not true, they are based on a lot of real events. Do I think I could pull a handcart across the country with my kids in tow on foot? Um...that's a big NO! Living the spoiled life I do, I get uncomfortable in January at night if the car doesn't warm up right away. We are truly blessed!!! I often feel humbled by all that we have. Sure it gets stressful toting the kids around to tumbling, cheer, basketball, soccer, etc. but heck if I get bored I can switch to satellite radio and get over 150 stations to entertain me.
The part that keeps me up at night is that while we live in an age of so many advances and truly so much at our fingertips there are still so many suffering. People are losing homes. Some of which have no control over and some that refuse to cut back their lifestyles and blame the housing market for not staying in the boom that it experienced. Mat and I have been VERY fortunate to hold on to our home. When we built it we spent quite a bit more than we originally intended. It was difficult to even get subs to work on it based on the booming economy. At the time it seemed everyone was building bigger and better and we just couldn't do the math. We knew what a stretch our home would be so couldn't imagine how others were building twice the size and spending more on the actual property. I even had a comment made to me once that the person "deserved" the house they were building. HELLO? Have we been raised in a third world country without decent medical care or running water? Even the self-proclaimed "poor" around us have it so good. When Mat and I purchased our first condo, it wasn't in a great area of town. It wasn't new or fancy by any means. We took it and pulled out the nasty carpet ourselves, threw some new paint on the walls, gave it a good cleaning, and thought we lived like kings.
Then we turn on the news... There always seems to be tragedy all around us. The latest obviously is the earthquake that rocked Haiti. All of those hundreds of thousands suffering! They weren't even living the plush life to begin with! I am extremely grateful for my life. For being privileged to be raised in So. Utah. For the gospel in my life. For my BEAUTIFUL family! How I struck the lottery in the husband dept. I'll never know. We are truly blessed!

Partying it up!

We have been having SUCH a fun time having the kids home from school the last few weeks. When I heard that Christmas vacation was 2 1/2 weeks I admittedly had a lot of anxiety. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE having my kids around. I tend to get a bit tired of having so very many other kids around though. I decided at the beginning of the break that when I needed a break I would just send extra kids home. I was fairly successful! We have had MANY Christmas parties and little did I know that the parties weren't going to stop! We attended a music soiree on Wed. night that included me having to sit through a 40 MINUTE song! I enjoy classical music but 6 hours of it could put anyone over the edge. For New Year's Eve. Mat and I attended our yearly New Year's competition. We had a blast and came away with some great prizes.

We dressed up as softball players and looked pretty hot I must say. :)
Practicing our victory pose.

The following morning our friends called and said they wanted to continue the competition form the night before so we headed over to their house that night till 1:00 am when the kids called and begged us to come home.

The boys reward for being good while mom and dad partied it up was an annual ice-fishing trip in Pine Valley. Caleb refused to hold his fish the way Easton was and Easton thought he was so brave since his older brother was being such a wimp. Pretty cute.

Since Bailey had watched the kids all THREE nights we told her we would take her and her friend Jane to the new ice-skating rink.
We had a boy from Bailey's class that kept following us around the rink telling the girls they were too slow. I can't imagine why he just didn't skate somewhere other than directly behind them the entire time can you?

Oh my goodness he is SOOOO CUTE!!! Okay they really weren't into him but I got a chuckle every time he skated in front of us obviously trying to show off his mad skills and fell every time!

Brrrr!!!!!

Cute girls! We've lived in our house 4 years now and Bailey has yet to have a friend in the neighborhood that was her age and she got along with well. We are so happy to have Jane around!

The ice-skating rink was overall pretty fun. I haven't been in years and don't remember the ice hurting so bad when you fall. I took home a few souvenirs on my body to remember the experience. One in the shape of one of the girls blades. They insisted we hold hands most of the time in case they fell. Of course if I wasn't able to stop their fall they took me down with them!

That night the Green's invited us up for another night of fun games. It was a good thing our church didn't start till 1:00 on Sunday otherwise we wouldn't have made it. Four nights of staying up late can start to wear you down. So worth it though!