After work thoughts...

Just got done with work. Sitting here watching Jeopardy and watching Ethan play with his toys. Its truly amazing how quickly this little boy has grown and changed. As his personality develops and he starts to become more personable, I fall more in love with the little guy every day.. does he know that the word he's constantly repeating is "dope"?... when he crawls into the kitchen looking for food, does he know its innapropriate to try and pull down my pants in his effort to get food?.. does he know crying at 2 am isnt what humans do? his obsession with bread and bananas makes me laugh. Will he ever know how cute it is when he laughs around his binky? Or how sweet his open mouth kisses are? or how it breaks my heart when i have to tell him no for sucking on the laptop computer.... Not till he is a daddy himself some day i assume..

He loves it when we read books and sing him songs.. if you pause your song he will grunt in his cute little way to ask us to continue.. and i love his silly little giggle when i set him up to walk accross the room with his little car..silly boy.

He is such a blessing. God is smiling me when i look at my little boy.

On another subject. Seth and I went to a blazer's game a few days ago.. Mike and Molly had some tickets available. It was so nice to get out and do something new. and they won. no free chalupas though :(. (thanks for thinking of us M&M) :)

we were also able to get away last month for a day and go snowboarding for the first time in 2 years. ( i was busy being pregnant last year) we discovered how 2 years was too long. gotta get on that elliptical... but we had a great day nevertheless... mt hood is beautiful. and it was completely clear and sunny!

So looking forward to spring. I want to help finance some seedlings for moms' garden (considering all i have is a porch, no yard) really craving some garden fresh veggies, and some summer fruits.. its so scary buying produce anymore with all the awful salmonella outbreaks. if you havent seen the movie Food Inc. We HIGHLY reccomend it.. great documentary.

Enjoy these recent pics. :)

HAITI CONCERT

Last night there was a benefit concert for raising funds to help Haiti,

here's a crummy couple of photos from my cell phone.. Josh at the drums.. Erics' dancing around, thus the blur.. Josh H. and James at the guitars :)..

completley unrelated-- a super cute photo of Ethan playing in the bathtub ;)

February is gone...

where did it go? 28 days seem like 2 lately...

I dont have any recent pictures to post, but i will throw in a quick update..

Seth and i continue to be busy with work, but try and make time weekly to spend time together with the help of some really great babysitters.. We are both involved in worship team at our church and really enjoy it. Seth started the "biggest loser" contest at work and has already lost 22 pounds in just 8 weeks! unbelievable! i got back into pottery, joining a local co-op that i go to weekly..we both are love being a mommy and daddy. Speaking of Ethan, he is growing rediculously fast.. changing every day, his personality, mobility, and vocabulary. He likes to say "dope" a lot. real cute. not sure where he picked that up.. his favorite activity is taking baths, which, he will try and crawl in at any time.. along with "fishing" for toilet paper when we forget to put the seat cover down. oops.

he is walking easily with assistance, and will take 1-2 steps alone before sitting, but he's on the move for sure! he is just starting to show signs of seperation anxiety and shyness around people, which i realize is a normal phase, but i thought for a while it wouldnt come.. he was always so chipper and sunshiney around people. When i took him in for his 9 month well child check, the poor kid panicked when they were measuring and weighing him. understandably so, as they stripped him naked to put him in the scale. poor fella... speaking of measurments, his current height is OFF the charts, at 30 and 3/4 inches long, however he did lose a pound since his last appt topping off at about 19 and 1/2 lbs. so tall and skinny dude. :)

alltogether, a happy and healthy Holmes family, very much looking forward to the summer. :)

Catching up...Seattle Trip

So now that ive caught up on my holiday posts i can update everyone on current Holmes family activities!

Weve moved! yay! we are no longer living in our parents' basement apartment. We found a great duplex and Ethan now has his own bedroom ! YAY!

Ethan is into everything, crawling , and quickly approaching the walking stage. He can walk great assisted by a little walker-car, so all he needs to do is work on balance. He is a very happy little person, mostly in the morning (like his mommy) and has gotten into a wonderful one-nap routine. He's eating solid foods now in addition to the usual baby fare (mom's milk) and his favorites are bananas and cooked zucchini and bread! man does that kid love bread! amazing how strong some family genes are.... weird.

His sense of humor is beginning to show, he likes to get you involved in a laughing match making fake cough noises to get your attention and then cracking himself up. He can say words like DA DA and NANA, and MA MA but we dont know if he knows what he's saying yet. .. sometimes he will just yell at the top of his lungs BA BA BRAH! and we just joke that he's talking to his imaginary friend Barbara...

here's some recent pics of a family trip we took to seattle..

hotel pillows are the best!

watching the cars go by..

at the top of the Space needle!

yep, thats my boy with the platinum blond hair! He didnt get it from me! :)

Christmas/New years post (in February)

So its been a while. I am so awful at updating! by the time the photos make it FROM the camera to the computer its months later. Sorry about that. So since so much has gone on, ill post twice...:)

Christmas for the Holmes family was really awesome. It was fun to have our first "family" Christmas. We were totally blessed with so many fun new toys for Ethan. He got new clothes of course which are always appreciated. Ethan got to meet his Great Grandma Ellen which was really awesome.

I have a few silly pictures to post of our little elf. :) he decided to cut his first 2 teeth and crawl the week before Christmas so he is a very busy little boy! He is growing so quickly and changes every day. He is fast approaching his older cousin's height and we think he will be a really big guy.

New years was spent with some friends and my brother, sister-in-law and our Nephew Jason. we stayed up just long enough to watch the ball drop and then crashed. other than pizza and board games it was pretty un-eventful.

It has only snowed once here this winter, and it was a dissapointing 2 inches. hopefully before the winter is over!

Seth and I continue to be busy with work. But we are hoping to save to buy our first house in the next year!

his shirt in this photo reads "silent night, yeah right!"

so so true.

First time we caught him standing up on his own!Pepsi is such a good sport!not sure how he got here! :)

Winter Update

Winter is here and its FREEZING here in Oregon. It was a low of 13 degrees last night. I know i havent posted in months.. sorry. :(

Ive been busy working at the family medicine through ohsu. its a really great company to work for and I love it... i currently work 3-4 days a week and it seems to be working out well.

Seth is continuing to be busy with work. He recently started a degree completion program at a school in portland, and goes one night a week.

The Holmes family has been busy busy with J.E. having a birthday in November, Thanksgiving, and Christmas approaching quickly. This past weekend we went and picked out a tree. Ive posted a few pictures of us. (thus Ethan's bright pink nose) it was FREEZING but so much fun.

Speaking of Ethan, he is so SO close to crawling.. He actually manages to get accross the room by rolling,squirming, and pulling.. but hasnt QUITE crawled yet. i expect in the next few weeks..

also he decided that he wanted teeth and has begun that fun process, keeping mom and dad awake for hours the last few nights screaming and crying... cant wait to see those teeth though! He has also graduated to eating some solid foods, and loves bananas and carrots and apples. He is growing so quickly and changes every day, making new sounds, and developing his own little personality.

If i dont post before then, We hope everyone has a totally blessed Christmas!

-J.E. (and Seth and Ethan)

getting ready to pick out a tree..

Picking out a tree

brr!found one!

YES. i look like daddy :)

update!

Hey all.

Sorry its been FOREVER since ive updated... needless to say its been crazy busy for the Holmes family.

I have been working my new job at ohsu in scappoose, Seth is keeping busy with his job. We've had a great summer and cant believe that the summer is already over!

Ethan is growing faster than we can keep up with. He is beginning to sit up on his own, and overnight, his personality is just blossoming. He is most definetly a morning person, waking with a smile on his face. Like i mentioned he enjoys sitting up and looking at his surroundings. He is very much into looking at people's faces. He is quick to smile, and Seth can make him laugh like no one else. :)

Ill post some recent pictures. Hope everyone had a great summer!