Santa is the BEST!

It was a great christmas, we enjoyed spending time with family, we had a lot of people come in to visit and it was so much fun. Quick story Santa (my brother Abe) came to visit the kids at the Christmas Eve Party and the kids took turns sitting on his lap telling him what they wanted for Christmas and then he would give them a small gift. Well Landen was one of the first ones to go and he asked for racing cars (which is all he asked for everytime he saw santa) and then he took his little gift from santa and went and sat with wayne's mom. He opened the little gift and it was a book, he flipped through it quickly and then handed it to Marsha and said "I don't want this, it is not what i asked for!" Normally i would be worried that my kid was becoming entitled, but isn't that what we teach our kids, that santa will bring us what we ask for if we are good, so i guess i had it coming.


Anyways santa was so good this year, Landen got his racing cars, and carson was happy with what he got, of course he would have been happy with anything. I definitely think that the mini air hockey table wins for best present!!! The boys are so cute playing this game, i can't believe that carson totally knows how to play!!! They have been playing this for days, and i have to admit wayne, my brothers, and i have taken our turns too!!

Family Prayers

okay so the other nite we were saying prayers and landen wanted wayne to help him and for whatever reason wayne was telling him the things we were thankful for and
started to include characters from a book and it went something like this:
Wayne- we are thankful for our home
Landen- repeat
Wayne- our family
(repeat)
Wayne- For Christmas
(repeat)
Wayne- We are thankful for baby Jesus, and small one (the donkey in the story that carried mary to bethlehem)
Landen- Repeat, (then adds) THE END

and then landen gets up like the prayer is over, it was hard not to laugh!!

dedicated to isaac

My brother Isaac has this great idea that his nephews should call him batman! so back in august at noel's birthday party he started telling landen that he was batman. and at first landen was a little confused because i was telling him to call isaac uncle zac, and then isaac was saying he was batman, and somehow in all of that landen started calling him daniel. i know, i don't get it either. so then at thanksgiving isaac was back to his old tricks and convinced landen to call him batman. So yesterday my aunt nancy came over and asked how isaac and cindy were and landen came up and corrected her and told her his name was batman!! and then this morning at breakfast out of no where landen starts teaching carson how to say batman!! so i grabbed my camera...isaac this is for you!!!

kids say the darnedest things!

So yesterday after church we came home and wayne made breakfast for lunch (our little tradition) and he calls his grits the people's grits, for some lame reason, but they are definitely good, he puts butter, salt, and cheese in them, and i usually just do a little bit of salt in mine. So we are sitting down eating and landen is like "we are having grits" and i was like yes we are, then the looks and me and says "i'm never going back to yours!!" Wayne and i busted out laughing, it was so funny!! seriously though, i don't blame landen. grits are not my best dish!

Seriously, what are you thinking?

So there are definitely times when i just can't figure out what my kids are thinking, of course i say that from an adult point of view, but when i stop and think of it from their point of view it is totally logical...kind of! So the other nite i was getting some stuff ready for preschool and i had to use my various paper cutting devices to get all the right shapes and sizes for the craft we were going to do. Landen was just hanging out in the room with Wayne and I and came to see what i was doing with all these fun looking "toys" on the floor. Which of course as soon as he showed interest i made a rule of no touching. as i am intensely focusing on what i am doing landen looses interest and hops up on the bed where wayne is texting on his blackberry and then out of no where wayne makes a random comment about why there is blood on the bed. for some reason i think he is kidding or that there is something else there, but he continues to tell me he is serious, and so i get up and look. there is no doubt it is blood. landen had cut his thumb on something a couple of days ago and so i thought that the wound had reopened and was bleeding again since i had just taken off the band aid. so i grab his hand and turn it over to look at his thumb. his hand has blood on it but it is not originating from his thumb. THEN it hits me, he has cut himself on one of my tools. And for the life of me i cannot figure out why in the world he would sit there and bleed and try to wipe it off on the bed instead of telling someone, seems like it would have hurt but he didn't make a peep. But in his mind i am sure he was thinking, well i broke a rule and if i tell then i will be in trouble so maybe i can hide it. makes sense, except it seems more like a move a teen would make, i hope this is not a sign of what is to come!!!!

Moving Up!

So we had the primary program on sunday and it was really good, they always seem to go so well. however, this one was a little more special than the other ones i have seen throughout my life because landen made his first appearance. They invited the nursery children to come up and sit on the stand and sing I am a child of God with the rest of the primary and then they went back to sit with their families. it was really cute, landen sang so loud i could hear him all the way in the back! i was really proud of him, he was a little squirmy and even walked off the stage once, but what can i say, he's improving!!

Carson is also on his way up to becoming a big kid, he turns 18 months on the 15th and so this sunday will be his first time of getting to go to nursery. he has always been such a big momma's boy that i am curious to see how he transitions. Then in january he will be the only kid in there altogether, because all of the other kids will be sunbeams, including landen!!

Ready, Set, GO!!!

Just thought i would post a slide show of some of our Fall Fun!! Landen loves racing Carson on his little bike, probably because he always wins, Carson can only push himself backwards in the car so he never crosses the starting line to ever have a chance at the finish line!! But I figure that is okay, because i am not sure Carson understands the game anyways:)

Lions, and Tigers, and Bears, OH MY!!

Okay so we are the holloman family losers, and for halloween we decided to dress with a theme. so my friend vanessa gave me a lion costume for landen and i found a tiger costume at a consignment shop for cheap so i decided i would try to be a bear and i made wayne a shirt that just says oh my, cute huh?(more like nerdy!!) Well the only problem was that landen's costume, the mane tickled his face so bad that he wouldn't put it up over his head, and then i could not find anything for a bear, i guess it was just not in season or the bear rights activist have removed all bear costumes from the shelves, i don't know. but anyways i had to make my own and it was ridiculous!! i look more like a mouse or a cat, or at least those were the guess from everyone else. dang it! but we had fun we rode some hayrides, played some games, then went to church and ate chili and did trunk or treat.

Party Time!!

So mary catherine, the boys cousin, just had a birthday party this last weekend and it was tons of fun. i would love to have a kid with an october birthday just because i love the fall time and it would be fun to have fall festivities like they had at this party. We painted pumpkins, and taped a nose on a jackolatern! Good times! Here are a few of the pictures i snapped, i love where i took the blindfold and tied it on carson's head, i don't know if he looks more like a pirate or mrs. buttersworth!!

Dirty Modeling

Okay, this is a kid blog, so lets keep it rated g and get your minds out of the gutter. This kind of dirty modeling is not what YOU were thinking!! LOL! So I thought this was a really cute picture, and he looks so grown up! If he didn't have bubbles, paint, and dirt all over him he would probably look like he was modeling here. Although i love this first picture, you don't really get the full effect of how colorful he really is so here are the others i took.

rocky mount junior swim team!!

so we just recently have been going over to the boney's house on tues and thurs so that landen can learn how to swim. this is the group that usually shows up along with the hastings kids who are not pictured. it has been a lot of fun and matt and tricia are really good at teaching the kids what to do. my kids are way behind, they have been doing this all summer, but landen and carson have been sick a lot this year and so we literally have been like twice! but it is fun and landen enjoys it even if he can't swim. so we are here by building the RM jun. swim team, they look like a fine group of winners to me!

The saddest thing i have ever seen

So when it comes to cruch time i am the one who stays in control, when it comes to my kids anyways, but poor wayne has a nervous stomach and nearly passes out anytime the kids even catch a cold. I don't really blame him for this reaction, i truly think that it is genetic. And besides i would be lying if i said that i didn't cry at scary situations but i fight it back until the end because someone has to act first, or at least that is what i normally do. So carson and landen were playing with the couch cushions on the floor yesterday, they had taken them off the couch and lined them up to create a bridge. After a couple of minutes of crawling back and forth across them Landen pulls out one of the cushions from right under Carson sending him flying and landing straight on the back of his head. I heard the loud thud and dashed to pick him up, he was already screaming and crying in pain and i held him tight to try to comfort him and explaining to landen at the same time that we can't do that because obiviously it hurt carson. Still trying to calm carson, i sat in the recliner, and almost as if my action had been the cause, carson threw up all over us. So i immediately cleaned us up and then came back to clean up the mess. At this point i am wondering if he is suffering from a concussion. So i checked his eyes and kept him awake. He went back to playing, and i watched him for about an hour passed his bed time just to make sure he was fine. He seemed normal so i put him to bed. Then i laid landen down and started getting ready for bed myself. Then i heard carson throw up in his crib. I ran in there and got him, and bathed him yet again, cleaned his sheets and called marsha to ask about concussions. She looked it up in her medical book of everything, and stated the vomitting could occur but to seek immediate help if it persists after 8 hours. so far it had been about 3 hours, accident occurred around 8 and i made the phone call at 11 pm. so at this point i am wishing that wayne were home, instead of in raleigh for a stupid wrestling match, so he could give carson a blessing. So i spent the next couple of hours trying to call his cell and texting him things like, emergency!!, call now! Finally he calls back and asks what happened, i tell him and he nearly passes out from the news, frustrated i order him to get it together and get home. finally he arrives about 1:30 am. carson had throw up a couple more times and i asked wayne to call his dad to come help give carson and blessing and i was going to call the doctor. So the doctor said to take carson into the ER so we waited for wayne's parents so that they could give him and blessing and then watch landen while we were gone. so we left about 2 am. we spent about 2 and a half hours at the ER. while we were they most of the time we spent waiting, of course, and then when the doctor came in carson was exhausted and squirming and crying. after talking to the doc and him doing a small exam he decided that they were going to have to do a cat scan to make sure that there was no internal bleeding, when there is internal bleeding pressure builds inside the skull and therefore the body tries to relieve pressure from other areas, thus the vomitting, to keep the body in balance. So i am a little scared by the thought, but i didn't feel like this was going to be the case, after the blessing i felt like everything was going to be fine, but still unnerving news because when they do a cat scan on a baby it exposes them to high amounts of radiation (about the equilivent of taking 50 xrays of their brain, that is high for a one year old). Then looking at carson squirming in my arms the doctor he tells me that he is going to have to drug the baby to make him tried, and they were going to have to give it to him through an iv, what!! carson would never go for that. so when the doctor left to go tell someone to give him the medication, i said a quick prayer and started trying really hard to get carson to fall asleep (note: i had been doing this for almost an hour, but now it was crucial). Wayne would really have passed out at the sight of that. So after about 10 to 15 minutes carson was finally out. so wayne went and told them and they came and rolled carson out of the room on the little bed that he was laying on. wayne stayed in the room while i followed the nurse, which was okay because they only needed one of us anyways. So until this time i had been nervous but in control and tried not to think about it too much. But then i picked him up and laid him on the other table laying his head in a foam brace. The nurse began wrapping him with, i think they are lead, i can't remember aprons and put a cafeteria lady hat on his head and i lost it, tears unwillingly streamed down my face. and once tears start they take over, i have never been able to just stop crying until my tear ducts just automatically stopped producing the tears on their own. He was such a sad sight laying sleeping and all wrapped up to where only his face and the top of his head shown. Then all the fears i had tried to suppress ran swiftly through my mind, what if there was internal bleeding, what would that mean, what would we have to do next, what if the radiation exposure caused mutation and he ended up with cancer or tumors later in life? I am sure the nurse was like what is her problem, but watching him as the red lights swirled about his face was definitely the saddest thing i had ever seen. So it didn't take long and we went back to our room to wait. The doctor came back and let us know that everything looked fine and told us some things to watch out for and then we were able to go at 4:30 am. we were exhausted. But we were also so blessed, i know the Lord is bound to think that i am needy because anytime anything happens that is the first thing i think of. But it is because i have the faith the Heavenly Father will take care of my kids, even when i feel helpless.

My little couch tater tot

Okay so i swear that i did try to put this in a slideshow, so this only goes to show that i have no idea what on earth i am doing!! So anyways, we got this toddler couch from a friend and the boys love it!! They are seriously funny with they way they lounge around, and fight over it too!! I just thought everyone would enjoy this. I love it, carson is a funny couch tater-tot with his fat little belly!!

Pretty Boys!!

Boys or Girls? Um they are boys!!! You would not believe how many people think that they are girls!! now the pic of landen was not a good one to pick, obviously he looks like a boy there, but back in his day he did have some long baby curls and i even had someone say he could be their little boys girlfriend, needless to say i immediately made an appointment to get his hair cut!! people are so funny though, i know my boys are pretty but i do dress them in blue! and my kids are older now, i thought that people only made those kind of mistakes when it was a newborn. i mean no one can look at a newborn and know what it is other than by the name (well not nowadays) and what it is wearing. and the other stupid thing that people ask me is if they are twins!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i mean how stupid can a person get, they are a little over two years apart! granted carson is huge but he doesn't look that old!! and personally i don't really think that they look that much alike anyways!! take a vote and let me know if you think they look alike. Lets do it on a scale 0 being that they don't look alike at all, 1- you can tell they are brothers, 2- they have similar features, 3- they look alike, 4- they look a lot alike, and 5- they could be twins!!!

Landy-poo!!

Oh my landen! what a funny kid! he is seriously growing so fast that i can hardly believe it! it is so funny when kids start doing things that you didn't even realize they were capable of. Landen has started becoming more adventurous and i have had to bite my tongue a few times and just watch as he sets out on his new career of "dare devil". He also is using his three year old cognitive skills: at milissa's baby shower landen was running in and out of the house a lot but he was there long enough to see "nissa" open her gifts and then came back in for some cake! so after he was done with his cake (actually i am embellishing and telling the story from my point of view, when i was not even there when this happened but it came of a good source, and it is my story so i can do whatever i want. the quotes are true, however!) so anyways landen went up to "nissa" in the middle of her having a conversation with some of the guests and said "nissa", then realizing that she was talking to others he politely (ha) interrupted but taking her hand and rubbing it and repeating her name. So milissa looked down and said "yes landy-poo", then landen looked up as sweet as possible and said "happy birthday nissa". Milissa thanked him and he was on his way. Such a simple story i know, but for a three year old that was a lot of thinking, milissa had presents and cake, the only time his gets presents and cake is on his birthday, and seeing as how he has never had a baby shower, and never will, he figured it must be her birthday. when milissa told me i died laughing, that one is definitely going in the journal!! although i still think that my all time favorite landen story is when he was two and we had been working really hard at getting him to sit still at church and it was time for sacrament and so it is all quiet in the chapel and wayne passed the sacrament to our row and landen yells out to him, "Sit down Wayne!!!" classic!

So we had just finished eating breakfast where carson ate eggs, grits, milk, and cheerios; so i took him down from his seat and started cleaning up. I came back around the corner and carson had started helping himself to the whole box of cheerios. And when i said eggs and grits i wasn't just talking about a few, i mean these were like adult size portions!! This kid is going to eat us out of house and home!! but it was just too cute to not record because he was head banging as he stuffed his face!!