Pinkie Paxton and The Hollands

Sunday, August 29, 2010

April-August 2010

Well, it's been 4 months since my last blog entry, so I decided that I better get caught up. Our lives seem to be so incredibly busy, but I like it that way. During the past 4 months a LOT has happened, some of which you will see in photos below. I'll begin with birthdays: In June, Kailee turned 11, Elli turned 2 (I have NO clue where those pictures disappeared to), and I turned 30 (the absolute best birthday that I've ever had-I'm so blessed to have the friends and family that I have). And in August, Joel turned 33 and had a nice little surprise birthday dinner himself. This summer Kailee had the privilege of being a true traveler. She began her travels with summer church camp at Bonita Park, NM and traveled on to Honolulu, Hawaii, Oregon, Possum Kingdom, San Antonio, and to spend a week with Gigi. Yes, the girl was busy, but had the best summer that she'll probably ever have. Elli has grown a ton and is SO much fun. She talks 24/7 and is hilarious. She's very assertive, bossy, and loud-I wonder where she got that from? Hmmm.... She's in the process of potty training and is doing a great job....at school :) Joel is looking forward to hunting season and is getting all of his gear ready to go. I have continued pursuing photography and actually launched my business-brookeholland photography, which can be found at www.facebook.com/brookehollandphoto. I will post some of my summer shoots in another blog post. There's a lot of pictures here, but please take a few minutes to peruse them.....even though they're out of order (I always forget to begin with the end and finish with the start.)

SAN ANTONIO TRIP 2010

Kailee riding Rosie the horse. The highlight of her San Antonio vacation.

Elli's absolute most favorite animal at the zoo! I wish I had video of her checking this guy out-it was priceless!

Every good children's vacation includes a trip to McDonald's.

Pit stop at the San Saba River on our way to San Antonio.

Somebody's excited to be on vacation!

OREGON GIRL'S TRIP 2010

Part of Multnomah Falls

Bridge at Multnomah Falls

Kailee and I are hiking up to the top of that rock....from this angle it looks much simpler than it actually was.

Columbia River Gorge

Beach fire with friends Marcie and Keith@ Neskowin

Beautiful sunset @ Neskowin

Canon Beach Sunset

Canon Beach

Indian Beach

Our first stop: Chapman Point at Ecola State Park.

BIRTHDAY TIME

Kailee and her girls celebrating her 11th birthday.

EASTER SHOOT 2010

Kailee in her pretty Easter dress. She's such a great model, even when she doesn't want to cooperate :)

Sunday, April 11, 2010

Just Photos

Coming up with something elaborate, creative, or cute just isn't my thing and is part of the reason that I hesitate blogging. After all, isn't blogging really supposed to include some sort of write up? Ugh...I'm just not "quick on my feet" and I don't have hours to spend producing a sloppy copy and then a final copy for what I would like to say. I think that I'll leave that process up to the 5th grader :) So, with that said, I think I've done my job and "blogged." Now I will leave you with some fun pictures of the girls.

Elli Photo Shoot

As a practicing photographer, I decided to seize the opportunity to snap a few early morning shots of Miss Elli since she decided it was time to get up and play. Knowing that Easter Sunday would be a little hectic, since we were having Easter lunch at our house, I decided to get her "Easter pictures" a day early. Elli was a really great sport, but she sure was hard to catch smiling! I drug out this old antique chair (that I have plans to recover), thinking that it was perfectly appropriate for her dress and the occassion. Thankfully, she obliged and made good use of it :) We had a great time, but sure were wishing that her sister was around. I will post pictures of her in her beautiful Easter dress soon.

P.S. If any of you want prints, let me know which picture and what size. I just printed some 4x6's and they turned out great!

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Finally....another blog entry

So, it's been awhile since my last blog entry-something like 5+ months! Everyone in my house is in bed so I decided to seize the opportunity. I'm sorry for all of you who have been patiently awaiting an update! I'm going to try to do better, but Im not making any promises! Since my last entry we've had Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's, and Valentine's Day along with a few other "banker's holidays." We had a nice Halloween celebrating Reba's birthday with her family, a nice Thanksgiving, and a good Christmas. New Year's and Valentine's Day are just good excuses to drink sparkling grape juice, eat lots of chocolate, and buy your wife flowers :)

The kids are growing like weeks and are keeping us plenty busy. Kailee is enjoying 5th grade and loves tumbling. She seems to be doing quite well in tumbling and can't wait to meet every Monday. She constantly practices and has progress quite rapidly from not even being able to do a cartwheel to almost doing a back handspring without a spotter. As for Elli, well, she is a mess! She has so much energy and personality that I just don't know what to do with her sometimes-she's such a blast and is constant entertainment! She goes ninety to nothing and is meeting new milestones as I wrote. She still loves to eat, loves to slide, tries to do front rolls, likes to sing "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" and " I Love You...." (The Barney Song), and talks a millions miles a minute saying things like "Daddy go" and "It's cold outside." She is so full of spunk and a bit of mischeviousness-you can't take your eyes off of her! We all lover her so much-especially her big sis. Here are a few pics from the past few months.

P.S. Joel got a couple of really nice deer this fall: 1 8pt and 1 12pt! Also, I finally did that run that I blogged about 6 or 7 months ago.....14k. I'm looking forward to more long distance runs in the future!

Kailee as Dorothy for Halloween.