The Holman Huddle

Should have taken this as a warning...

2008-09-21T19:17:00.006-05:00

Averaging about one blog every four months... pathetic. Thanks to all of you who actually come out here looking for some news on what we're up to. Here's a little story that should make you smile...

I picked up a chocolate cake from Woullet's for Eric's birthday. I fought off all snide remarks from my co-workers about not baking one myself and drove home feeling confident that there was more love poured into the beautiful chocolate cake in the box on the passenger seat than I could have ever created in the 10 minute Betty Crocker disaster that otherwise would have occured in my kitchen that night (failing to plan ahead, of course). Needless to say, the cake was delicious and Archer once again showed his love for all things cake.

So, I shouldn't have been too surprised to hear the story that came up while I picked him up from Miss Kendra's this past Friday.

It goes a little something like this.... It was the last day for one of the daycare kids so, as lovely as Kendra is, she decided to make cupcakes. After naptime, Kendra is helping a few of the kids in the bathroom when her 5-year-old son runs into the room screaming something like ... "ARCHER... TABLE... CUPCAKES... AHHHH" Turns out my son had climbed on top of the kitchen table, sat himself squarely down, and helped himself to the cupcakes. His face looked a little similar to the birthday cake picture, except they were vanilla cupcakes and they had finished the cupcakes outside near the sandbox. I now have a pretty good idea of what spackle would look like if it were made of frosting and sand... lovely.

Hoping it won't be another four months until next time. Hope you're all enjoying the end of summer... I love fall, but this weather can last a few more weeks!

Some call it Golf, Archer calls it "Baseball"!

2008-05-15T09:47:00.007-05:00

This weekend Eric was in St. Louis at a bachelor party with some of his college friends, so my parents came up to keep Archer and I company. As you can see, Grandpa Jim made Archer a mini-putter of his own (I think it's nicer than my putter, which has incidentally gone missing from my bag). We had a ton of fun watching Archer try to figure out how to hold the club. In the end, he had more fun "Gramma Golfing" and throwing the ball and chasing it down.

We've been enjoying the back yard a ton now that it appears that Spring is going to stick around for a while. Eric and Archer play football a lot... Archer loves to yell "touchdown"... we're still working on learning the "Ickey Shuffle" :)

Otherwise, Archer is talking like crazy and learning new words and phrases every day. Here are a few of our favorites:

"Uh oh, book fall down, go boom, bye-bye" - said after he pushed
his book over the back of the sofa.

"Good Stuff" - his new favorite thing to say when eating something yummy.

"Clifford Dog, Clifford Dog, Clifford Dog" - he LOVES this book
(thank you Auntie Nicole). Funniest thing... the first time he said it I swore he was saying "Kung Fu Duck".

I'm heading to Chicago this weekend to see my girlfiends -- yippee! Hope you're all enjoying the beautiful weather. Archer's at such a fun age right now... I wish you could all see him in person. We love visitors, so let us know if any of you would like to make a visit Up North this summer! Take care everyone!

Archer's Favorite Book

2008-04-28T10:09:00.002-05:00

Archer has totally fallen in love with Eric Carle books. His new favorite is Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See. You always know which book he wants to read because he'll walk around the house saying "I see... I see" He's starting to try to count things, which my mom swears makes him a genius baby. She wanted some proof of him counting because her teacher friends are starting to think she's nuts ("sure Cindy, he's counting, next is advanced physics, I'm sure") so I got him on video this morning. He couldn't quite get past the frog (One, two, three, FROG!)

You'll also notice that the little man is looking a little more dapper after getting his first haircut. I can't believe how much older he looks without his baby mullet.

Otherwise, it's Monday, it's my 30th Birthday and I couldn't ask for much more in the world... life is good and I'm very grateful.

Keeping my fingers crossed that our new nephew is born soon. Good luck on your nursing tests, Mandy! I don't know how you do it all! :)

Archer + Tractors = Fun!

2008-04-18T16:27:00.001-05:00

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books

Spring... finally!

2008-04-18T13:59:00.005-05:00

Is it just me or was this the longest winter ever?!? Maybe it's because Archer has discovered the outdoors (or "outsiiiiide" as he likes to say) or because we're just so tired of playing with the same toys in the house... either way, it appears to finally be over.

We've had a busy couple of weeks. My mom was in town for a week to hang out with Archer. Since Eric is taking some time off, they all had a lot of fun in the back yard building one last snowman, playing with lots of sidewalk chalk, and going to the zoo.

Last weekend we went to Iowa City to attend the wedding of one of Eric's fraternity brothers. Grandma and Grandpa Dunlap were excited to have Archer stay with them for the night (the first time Eric and I were away overnight together... yikes!). So, we drove down on Thursday night and headed for Iowa City on Saturday afternoon.

While we were there, we checked out the Bettendorf Family Museum. Archer was slightly obsessed with the toy train set...

On Saturday morning we went to John Deere Commons to play on the tractors. Archer mentioned something about practicing his driving so that he could impress Addison this summer... but, I'm not exactly sure that Travis or Bongo will let him drive anytime soon! :) Check out the video above.

Josh and Stephanie's wedding was beautiful. It was great to see lots of old friends that we don't get to see very often these days. I'm convinced that every third woman is pregnant these days (evidenced by number of lovely bellies I saw just at the wedding alone). It's so exciting to know so many great people who are about to become parents... so fun!

Other than that, life is good. Happy birthday to three of my favorite ladies who have turned 30 in the past month or so... can you believe we're not in our 20s anymore? I guess I have 10 days left, but am pretty comfortable with the idea of getting older. In some ways it makes me feel like finally old enough to have a husband, a house, and a son... although most days I still feel like a kid... do you ever really feel your age?

Oh the shame...

2008-03-20T21:40:00.003-05:00

So it's been literally like 8 months since I posted something. I noticed that there was a link to our blog from the Johnson Family blog... nothing like a swift kick to get you to post a little something.

Archer is LOVING winter and all the snow (yes, it's March, but hey... it's Minnesota). Here's a photo of him in his new snow suit!

He's becoming such a big guy running around, pointing at everything and asking "whazzat?" It's one of my favorite sounds/words ever. We're getting ready to leave for Okoboji tomorrow morning and I haven't packed a thing. So, this is all for now. But, I promise it won't be another 8 months before I post again. As always, our Dropshots site is pretty current... so check out our photos!

And suddenly he's a little man...

2007-07-17T20:51:00.000-05:00

It's been another month. Amazing how time flies. We've been busy with all kinds of summer fun. Grandma Cindy visited us for two weeks while daycare was closed (we really had a to twist her arm to convince her...). It was so great to have her here and watch the two of them get to know eachother so much more.

The craziest news comes in the last week! Archer is now learning to crawl/scoot around AND he has his first tooth. I'm amazed at how the smallest things make me realize that he's no longer my little baby, but is day-by-day becoming a little boy. (Sigh... college suddenly feels right around the corner). It is, however, a ton of fun to watch his mind work. He's super inquisitive and loves to figure things out. We'll be sure to keep you up to date on any new progress...

Hope you're all enjoying a lovely summer!

By the way... I'm the biggest guy in town!

2007-06-14T19:51:00.000-05:00

Just to show off how big-time our little man is, he's been trying to sit up on his own. Tonight was the true showcase of how much he must be learning from all the big kids a daycare. He's now sitting pretty confidently... all just in time for his 6-month birthday tomorrow!

It's already June?!?

2007-06-12T13:42:00.000-05:00

It's hard to believe that Archer will be 6-months old on Friday. I'm amazed how fast each day flies by and how much he's changing. It's, once again, been a crazy couple of weeks. Aunt Mandy, Chayse and Ava visited for a fews days at the end of May. Archer had a blast playing with his cousins! Then, Uncle Brett visited for Memorial Day weekend and Uncle Mikey came up for the last part of the weekend. It was great to have a house full of boys!

Last weekend we had a Tour de Iowa (Iowa's french, right?!) attending two weddings. We set up camp in Okoboji on Friday night, woke up Saturday and drove to Ft. Dodge to see John & Julie Gaffey's beautiful ceremony, then drove back to Okoboji to enjoy Matt & Jodi (Simpson) Connolly's reception at the Pavilion at Arnold's Park. It was really great to see a lot of old friends who we don't get to see as often as we would like. Best wishes for love and lots of laughter to both couples!

This past weekend was full of a lot of much-needed downtime at home (a.k.a. endless loads of laundry, cleaning and yard work).

In the past few weeks we've pulled the solids from Archer's diet and switched to soy formula. We're in the process of trying to figure out what was causing a rash on his chest and figured we'd start back at square one. He's continued to have a stuffy nose and some coughing... so there I'm starting to think that he may have some reaction/intolerance to something he's eating/drinking. We've chatted with the doctor a few times, but since he's not having any serious side effects, we're taking steps/changes slowly. We'll chat about it more after his 6-month checkup in a few weeks.

All that aside, Archer is still the amazing, funny, good-natured little boy that he's always been. Lately he's had a lot of fun playing with his feet and making all sorts of noises. He's nearly sitting on his own (with a little teetering and tottering here and there). Check out dropshots for the most recent pictures.

We hope summer is finding you all happy and well! We hope to see many of you at the Sims Family reunion in Okoboji next month. And we're excited to have Grandma Cindy babysit for the first two weeks of July while daycare is on vacation! We're so blessed to have all of you to share our lives with!

P.S. Congratulations to Nick and Alison on the birth of their little man (who we were lucky enough to meet at the Gaffey wedding) -- Reuben Anton! What a gorgeous little boy blessed with two great parents! We look forward to lots of fun with you guys!

Hi guys! It's me, Archer!!!

2007-05-21T09:04:00.000-05:00

Hello family and friends, Archer here. Since Mommy and Daddy have been so busy lately, I decided to post a little update. We've all been very busy since the last post on May 7:

I started on a regular routine of solid foods - including bananas, prunes, oatmeal and rice. My favorite is bananas, but we seem to run out of those pretty quickly. Mommy was a little concerned at first because I wasn't going #2 on a regular basis, but Daddy assured Mommy that I was okay and that it takes my little body some time to get used to new foods. Hopefully, I can have some tacos or pizza someday soon!!!

I've been rolling over on a more frequent basis lately, and I've discovered my feet! They are sure fun to pull up to my chest!!!

We've been garage-saling on a couple Saturdays with Mommy and Daddy's friends, James and Tara Anderson. They have a daughter name Emilie who I think is super fun (and kind of cute - ***wink wink***). Mommy and Daddy always tease me that she's my "girlfriend" - I don't know what that means, so I just giggle to appease them when they say it. Giggleing and/or blabbering always seems to do the trick...

Mommy and Daddy have also been doing a lot of lawn care work - Mommy in the garden, and Daddy in the garage and mowing the lawn. He bought a new lawn mower this spring, and he's sure getting good use of it. He's also been trying to grow some new grass in our backyard, though it's not coming up as quickly as he'd like.

Also, we are excited to have two of our friends back in Minneapolis from the west coast - Nick and Alison Tasler. Nick was a fraternity brother of Daddy's at Iowa. Nick's wife, Alison, originally hails from Jordan, Minnesota - about 30 minutes S.W. of the Cities. We all went out there a couple weekends ago to have dinner. Nick is quite good on the grill - at least, that's what my daddy told me. Of course, I couldn't eat any food there - but it sure smelled and looked good. Also, they are expecting their first baby TODAY! So pretty soon I will have another little person to play with! We are all praying for a safe and healthy delivery for both baby and mommy.

Finally, I'm VERY excited to have my favorite cousins, Chase and Ava, come visit me today with Aunt Mandy. It seems like I only get to see them about every two months - which is not often enough - so I'm excited to have some play time with them this week!!! (Plus, I think Aunt Mandy will probably spoil me a little bit when Mommy and Daddy aren't around - the good lord knows that I'm not spoiled enough).

Anyway, enough of my blabbering for now - I'll update you all on my life soon - take care!!! Love, Archer

Johnny Jump to Sleep?

2007-05-07T14:59:00.000-05:00

We spent Saturday morning wandering through the Tangletown neighborhood garage sale with friends. A $5 Johnny Jump Up seemed like a deal too good to pass up. We decided to give it a try yesterday afternoon as Eric was doing some work and I was hoping to get a few dishes done. After 5 minutes of giggling, jumping, and looking like a little leprechaun, I look over to see this...

Solid food... here I come!

2007-05-07T14:51:00.000-05:00

While Archer still isn't quite ready for all the yummy stuff Grandpa Jim thinks he should try (ice cream, pizza, Makers Mark...), we had our first successful rice cereal meal on Friday night. Tell me this face doesn't have "YUMMY" written all over it. After 4 1/2 months, the little guy was probably thinking he would have nothing but mama's milk forever... and then he had a taste of rice cereal with bananas... whoo hoo!

Holy Cr@p!

2007-05-04T13:27:00.000-05:00

So it's been a while... I've thought nearly every day about the fact that it has been (fill in the blank) days since the last time I posted anything here. I just looked down at my phone to realize that it's been a month!

Life's been crazy (I know...excuses, excuses). I'm amazed how fast every day flies by. I feel like from the moment I wake up in the morning to the second my head hits the pillow is now filled with all things mommy. Don't get me wrong, I have absolutely no complaints (who could complain with a cute little mug like this looking up at you?).

But, I'm really unsure what I did before Archer came into our lives. My hands are becoming scratchy and yucky from endless bottle cleaning (you pump, you empty into daycare bottles, you clean today's daycare bottles, you clean pump bottles -- repeat a million times), the washer and dryer have been running constantly (Eric and I admit that the warmer weather is causing us to go through twice as many clothes each day -- he hasn't figured out a way to mow the lawn in a business suit without making a mess), a then there's the basic clean and organize that never seems to be quite "finished." Last night I had a burst of energy (undoubtedly due to the handful of chocolate covered espresso beans that I devoured) and managed to get the kitchen looking a bit more "ooh" than "eww". I keep thinking that one of these weeks I'll get caught up and the daily upkeep will be less... but that day hasn't arrived yet.

Anyway, enough domestic dribble... Archer (that's who you really want to hear about, right?) is great. We're now well into week 3 at "Miss Kendra's" (a.k.a. daycare). Part of the reason I waited to post about daycare was because the first week was a bit rough (read: Jen sobbing like a crazy person at work) and I didn't want the world to think that we were leaving our child with someone horrible. We've all gotten a little more comfortable with the arrangement and I now feel completely comfortable with Kendra's ability to take care of our little man. Although a huge part of my heart aches every time I think that I'm dropping my child off for 9+ hours of nurturing each day by someone other than Eric and I, I'm realizing that it's an unfortunate thing that many/most families deal with. Some day, we may be able to change it, but for now, it's what we must do.

I digress... Archer (again) is great! Each day I'm amazed that he's more fun than the day before. He's getting to be very vocal and has definitely figured out Eric and I. He's now completely aware that a little cough/cry/squeal will cause the two of us to drop whatever we were previously doing to tend/play/coo to him. As if we weren't wrapped around his finger enough, he's now playing baby-mind-games too (smarty pants)!

Archer's also gotten pretty good at rolling over. I'm sure scooting and crawling are only a few weeks away, so we're enjoying our "immobile" time. We've really enjoyed the return of warm weather and have started taking a nightly walk (which more often than not ends at our neighborhood Dairy Queen). Grandma & Grandpa Dunlap helped us out by buying a super fun three-wheeled stroller that allows us to tackle the curbs and sidewalk cracks much easier than our little "mall stroller".

Eric and I are trying our hands at officially being homeowners and have taken up gardening and lawn care. So far, it's been a fun way to get outside and we haven't managed to kill anything (yet).

Would love to hear from everyone... I've thought about all of you as much as I've thought about adding another post to this blog... one of these days I'll get it all figured out! Looking forward to seeing some of you over Mother's Day weekend in the Quad Cities. Until then, I promise to not let another month go by!

"Let's go to the zoo" (in your best little-kid-from-Jerry-Maguire-voice)

2007-04-03T21:49:00.000-05:00

Yesterday we spent a chilly spring day wandering around the Como Zoo and Conservatory. I'm glad we decided to go when we did as the weather today resembled more winter than spring. We're lucky to only have a little more than a sloppy wet mess and not the 6+ inches that cities just north of us got today!

It was our first trip to the Como Zoo and we loved it! Not only is it free (donations accepted), but it has a pretty decent selection of animals and a Conservatory full of beautiful plants and flowers... just what we needed to feel a little more like spring! Archer's little nose didn't know quite what to think of all the flower smells -- I seemed to have caught him mid-sneeze in this photo!

Archer heard his first lion roar as we were wandering not 50 feet from it! I think Eric and I were a bit more impressed than he was, but, oh well! I think this will become a monthly stop for us when we're needing a little adventure in the city!

Otherwise, the week is flying by. We're having dinner with Grandpa Rick tomorrow night while he's in town for business meetings. Then, we're on the road Friday to celebrate Easter in Okoboji.

I can't believe it's already the second week of April. Eric has just under two weeks of "man-ternity" leave left. I'll try to talk him into leaving his own little posting telling about all the fun they've had each day. I'm starting to think he is more productive than I was while I was home with Archer -- today I got home from work to find the laundry done and dinner being prepped on the stove. I guess I'll keep buying my lotto tickets in the hope that someday we'll hit it big and both be able to stay home with our littlest man!

Let me tell you...

2007-03-28T13:56:00.000-05:00

I had to post this because it's about the cutest thing I've seen/heard in a long time (again, no bias here). Archer is starting to understand that he can "talk" just like we do. His grunts are turning into something that resembles speech a bit more... hillarious!

What a weekend!

2007-03-28T12:59:00.000-05:00

I know... it's Wednesday and I'm finally getting around to writing about the events of the weekend... if you could only see our living room you would see that we're still not completely unpacked and are digging through suitcases to get ready each morning :)

We had a great trip to the Quad Cities to visit Grandma and Grandpa Dunlap and to have Archer baptized at the church where Eric and I were married. We started the roadtrip on Thursday afternoon -- hoping we wouldn't double our 5-hour drive time with a baby in the car. Archer did great and slept the majority of the trip!

Friday morning was the beginning of the baby parade. Archer and I went with Grandma D to school where she teaches to see some of her co-workers. Then we went to meet Great-Grandma Elsie at the nursing home. It was a gorgeous spring day with temps in the 70's so we enjoyed running around with the windows down!

Saturday continued the baby parade with Archer meeting lots of new people. We met up with Katie, her mom and twin girls for coffee and breakfast. Then, my girlfriends arrived from Chicago just in time to hit the mall food court for lunch (a trip home just isn't complete without a trip to Chick-fil-a!) Saturday afternoon, Grandma and Grandpa Holman arrived along with my Aunt Corinne and Uncle Roger. We all got together for monster-reubens at the Belgian Village. Seriously... we didn't spend the entire weekend eating, did we?!

Sunday's baptism was great. We were thrilled to have the same pastor who married Eric and I perform the baptism. By the end of the service, Archer finally realized that the trumpets and organ weren't monsters coming to get him (seriously... whose brilliant idea was it to have a jazz band play on a Sunday with 5 baptisms?)

We finished the day with (you guessed it... more food) a great lunch at Biaggi's. Thank you to everyone who made the trip to the QC's to share the day/weekend with us! It was wonderful to finally show off our son to all of you! We're the proudest parents in the world and can't believe we're so lucky to have such a fun little man!

All in all, our first road-trip home was great. But, I have to admit it felt really nice to get home on Monday afternoon. It's funny how you don't realize how much of a routine you have until you're not in it! If only we can figure out a way to get all the people we love to come to the Twin Cities! :)

There are tons of photos on our dropshots site from the weekend... take a look!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

2007-03-18T13:09:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was Archer's first St. Patrick's Day! We celebrated with friends in true Minnesota form...

Archer was officially (no parental bias here) the cutest little man in town wearing his "Kiss Me I'm Cute" t-shirt that one of Grandma Cindy's friends sent. I'm continually amazed when I dress him in clothes that I swear will be huge on him to have them barely fit. He's growing so fast (was in the 90th percentile for both height and weight at his 8-week appointment) and is starting to fill out even his 6th month clothes -- yep, he just turned 3-months on Thursday!

The day started with a bath -- I'm proud to report that Archer has stopped thinking that we're trying to drown him and has started to have fun in the tub. Eric and I still find it easier to have a few extra hands in the tub, so it usually ends up being a family affair.

We met some friends in St. Paul at Sweeney's for a little lunch (and a few bloody marys for Eric). Then we headed over to the St. Paul Curling Club to watch a few friends in a bonspiel (a.k.a. tournament). It was a first for all of us (aside from watching a little curling in the last winter Olympics). I'm beginning to understand the goal of the game, but I'm still completely clueless as to how the scoring works. There's talk of maybe starting a league next year, so hopefully I'll have a few more chances to figure it out! Doesn't Archer look thrilled to watch!