Carson's 4th Birthday Lego Parties!

Carson's birthday parties went very well last weekend.  Carson picked a Lego theme for his birthday this year, which was a lot of fun to decorate for.  Carson and Mama worked on different projects for a few weeks to use as decorations so that it all tied into the Lego theme.  We made the invitations and party bags, a banner for the window, a Happy Birthday banner for the fireplace, tissue poms to hang in the dining room and kitchen, a birthday balloon wreath for the front door, and Mama  finally made Carson the tablecloth he has been wanting to use for his birthday for the last two years.  Everything turned out really well and looked very nice. 

We did two parties again this year - one on Saturday with Kevin's family and some friends and one on Sunday with Sara's family.  It just seems to work out well this way so that we can actually have a chance to talk with everyone and there are places to sit for everyone, too.  If we did one big party, we'd have around 50 people there at once.  Carson picked the meals for both parties.  He chose tacos for the Saturday party and roast beef with potatoes and carrots for the Sunday party.  The food on both days turned out really good and we had leftovers for the rest of the week, which was nice, too. 

Carson was so excited for both of his parties.  He loves it when his cousins and friends come over to his house to play.  And he just loves seeing them all, in general.  He had so much fun playing with the kids both days and was sad when the parties were over.  He received so many awesome gifts - everyone was more than generous.  He's been enjoying all of his new toys all week.  He got lots of new Legos, which we're making our way through.  He just loves to build Legos and he's quite good at it.  Daddy helps Carson with the bigger sets that have higher age limits, but Carson is able to do quite a lot of them on his own, too. 

Thank you to everyone who came to celebrate Carson's 4th birthday with us!!  We all had a lot of fun at the parties!  It is nice to have our house back in order, though, too.  :) 

I forgot to include this in my last post, so I'll include them here.  I interviewed Carson on his birthday and these were his answers at the age of 4, word for word.  It will be fun to see how his answers change over the years. 

** FAVORITES:
Color:  yellow and orange
Toy:  Matchbox cars and track or Legos
Animal:  Panda bear
Song:  Joy to the World, Hark the Herald Angels Sing, and the Zacchaeus song
Book:  anything by Dr. Seuss
TV Show:  Little Einsteins
Game:  Cootie
Fruit:  Grapes
Vegetable:  Green beans
Snack:  Graham crackers (this was news to me... since we never have them in the house :))
Drink:  Chocolate milk made with real milk and Fruitopia
Thing to do Outside:  Playing in the snow - building a snowman and making snow angels
Thing to do at Preschool: to play in the kitchen area and sing songs about Jesus
Holiday: Christmas and the snow season

** What he wants to be when he grows up:  A house builder

** What he's looking forward to most with his baby sister:  Giving her kisses, singing to her, and buying her a dollhouse

Carson Turns 4!!

Carson turned 4 years old on Monday!  Its hard to believe and I really wish could stop him from growing up any more.  But, of course, I can't.  :)

Birthday weeks are always so fun and this has been no exception.  On Monday, Carson woke up quite surprised that his socks still fit and his pants weren't too short.  He thought he'd have a major growth spurt in the night.  ;-)  He was also surprised that he didn't feel any different than he had when he was 3.  He also decided he could do several things on his own now, since he's such a big boy of 4 years old.  :) 

Carson got to spend time with Aunt Jeri and Uncle Mike on Monday morning.  They got him a big balloon and a special cookie.  Then he went over to Nana's and Papa's in the afternoon, where he got a really cool kite and Nana made him one of his favorite dinners (roast beef, carrots, and potatoes).  We had dessert at home and enjoyed several phone calls wishing Carson a Happy Birthday. 

Tuesday was a fun day with Valentine's Day celebrations - but I'll post separately about that. 

On Thursday, Mama took the day off of work so she could bring in birthday treats to Carson's preschool class.  Carson and Mama made chocolate chip cookies to share with everyone.  All of the kids were so happy to sing Happy Birthday to Carson and Carson was so proud to have his Mama in class for the last 15 minutes.  He got to sit in the special birthday chair and his teachers gave him a birthday crown.  It was really cute and fun!

After school, we went in for his well-child visit.  He was 36 pounds (50th percentile), so he's gained his weight back, plus a little, from having the flu a few weeks ago (he was down to 32.5 pounds that week).  He was also 40.5 inches tall (50-60th percentile).  So he's finally averaging out in terms of growth.  As usual, he is exceeding all of his developmental and physical milestones.  He had to get 4 shots and was such a champ with the first 3, not even flinching.  The last one (MMR) burns and aches quite a bit, according to the nurse, and he did start to tear up for that one.  He didn't want to move his arm for quite awhile, either.  Poor kid! 

After the well-child visit, Carson asked to have lunch at Burger King.  Since we never do it and because he had to get 4 shots and wasn't wanting to move his arm still, Mama agreed.  We ran into Carson's friends from class - Tanner and the two Carters.  So Carson forgot about his arm hurting pretty quickly and had so much fun playing with them! 

Now we look forward to spending time with family and friends this weekend for Carson's birthday parties.  He is very excited to have everyone at his house to play.  :)

We are still having girl drama.  On the way home Tuesday night, Carson tells me that "his life is ruined!" in a quite devastated tone.  I guess he has some competition for Gabi's attention now.  ;-P  He told me that his friend Ben wanted to sit by Gabi that day and play with her all the time.  So Carson decided maybe it was time to move on and has his sights set on a little blonde girl named Lili now.  :)  Although he still hasn't completely given up on Gabi.  I noticed they were sitting next to each other again on Thursday when I went into class... and Ben was at another table.  But Lili was also on the other side of Carson.  LOL! 

Carson has been having night terrors quite a bit lately.  He doesn't always remember what he dreams of, but a few times he's told us that a scary guy was chasing him and he was running as fast as he could, but couldn't get to Mama and Daddy.  He wakes in the night with them quite often and is too scared to sleep in his own bed for the rest of the night.  It's actually really nice to have him with us for the last few hours of the night, though.  Whatever makes him feel safer. 

We go in for our first parent-teacher conference in a couple of weeks.  We're excited to hear what the teacher has to say.  His teacher did tell me the other day that Carson is one of the smartest kids in class, if he's not the smartest.  She is quite impressed with his logical way of doing things.  She thinks he'll be an engineer or will do something science-based.  While we've thought this for years now, it was nice to hear from his teacher.  She also has remarked how impressed she is with his handwriting and number/letter recognition.  I have to say, we are, too!  :) So anyway, we will see what else she has to say in a couple of weeks. 

This past year has been another great year and it is so amazing to watch Carson learn and grow.  Three was a challenging age, attitude-wise, but it seems to be so for most 3-year olds.  We have heard nothing but good things about the age of 4, and we've already noticed such a change in Carson after being 4 for only a few short days.  So we are really looking forward to what this new year brings and how much Carson grows and develops.  Happy birthday to our incredibly sweet, caring, funny, smart little man!

Early February Shenanigans

February has been a busy month already and it's already over half over!  We've been having a lot of fun, but we've had our share of sickness, too.  We're ready for it all to be over!  We had two different rounds with the flu.  Carson had it at the end of January.  Then 10 days later, Kevin caught a different flu bug and was down with that.  Thankfully it didn't spread through the whole family either time - and Sara avoided it twice!  We're still not quite sure how, since pregnancy means a depressed immune system... but whatever we were doing worked, I guess.  :)  Unfortunately, the morning Kevin was coming down with his bug, he didn't realize it and ended up spreading it to his mom, who came down with it two days later.  Then his dad ended up with it two days after that.  Thankfully everyone is recovered now!  And hopefully we're done with the flu for a few years now! 

The first Saturday this month, we all went over to Great Poppy's house for a family night.  Everyone was there, at one point or another.  It was a lot of fun and good to see everyone since it'd been since Christmas that we'd seen them all... which is quite odd in Sara's family.  :)  We had homemade chicken noodle soup for dinner (using Great Apple's recipe) and just had fun hanging out.  Carson and Mackenzey had a blast together.  They were very excited to see each other and play.  They kept the rest of us entertained for most of the night with their dance moves.  :)  Brooklynn will be joining in on the fun before we know it, she's growing so fast - and you can tell she just wants to follow her big sister around already. 

Carson has been playing Little Kritters soccer again this year.  It's just a 7-week program, every Wednesday night.  He is having a lot of fun with it.  He does really well, but usually ends up getting tired of trying to control the ball with his feet at some point and picks it up and just runs with it like a football.  :)  Most of the other kids do it at some point, too.  They just have a lot of fun, though.  We've got one week left of soccer before it ends and Carson is kind of sad about that.  He wants to keep playing.  So maybe we'll look into one of the kids' classes at Soccer Zone.  We'll see. 

Crazy January Weather

We have been having some pretty crazy weather this month in Michigan.  Mother Nature certainly can't make up her mind.  We've gone from 55 degrees to the 20s with snow back to the mid-40s, 30s, 50s, 20s.  It's been a weather roller coaster to say the least.  We've been enjoying it, though, and trying to make the most of it. 

We have been able to play outside with just sweatshirts on and no coats... which is nearly unheard of in January in Michigan. 

Then a week later we were playing in the little bit of snow that had fallen during a winter storm.

In between there, we had some muddy days where we stayed inside.  We had our friends, Ben, Kati, and Tony over for our first project day.  We've started a new thing where we get together, the men go work on some project (in the garage or around the house) that needs to be done, while the women take care of the kids and sew or craft.  Then we all do something fun together.  On this particular day, the men were in the garage swapping motors from one Cub Cadet tractor to another so we can get the junky tractor out of our garage.  Kati and Sara worked on some sewing projects - Kati made a pretty baby quilt and Sara made some scarves and a Michigan State blanket.  Carson and Tony had fun playing together.  Then we all went out for dinner and came back to our house to watch the Lions playoff game.  It was a fun day!  We've since had a project day at the Spadas house, too.  This is working out to be quite the productive and fun idea! 

Our Christmas Celebrations, 2011

We've had a wonderful, busy Christmas season!  We were fortunate enough to celebrate with all sides of our families this year, which means lots of parties!  Thankfully, Sara started having a decent run of good days just in time for all of our Christmas parties. 

First up was Christmas Eve with the Burge family at Aunt Sharon's house.  We enjoyed lots of great food, laughs, and time spent with family.  We did the adult gift exchange as we have in years past and the little kids all opened gifts from the great aunts and Great Poppy.  I think they were all very happy with their gifts.  Carson enjoyed spending time playing with Mackenzey, Gabe, and Brooklynn.  He was so excited to see Mackenzey, as she was to see him, too.  She met us with a big smile at the door, asking if she could take Carson's coat so they could get to playing already.  :) 

We woke early on Christmas morning to open our family gifts and to see what Santa brought Carson.  He was SO excited to get his Lego police station and socks from Santa.  Yes, I said socks.  He had been wanting socks from Santa for a few weeks - he does love new socks, the feel of them, but it's such an odd request from a 3-year old.  Luckily, Santa got the message and left Carson some nice, new socks.  He was very excited!  He loved all of the gifts from Mama and Daddy, too.  He wanted to get started putting things together and was busy playing almost immediately.  He was one happy little man! 

We headed over to Grandpa and Grandma's house in the afternoon on Christmas day.  Everyone was more than generous with their gifts - the tree was overflowing with gifts!  And it took quite a while to get through them all.  But we made it and everyone was very happy with their gifts again.  Carson's highlight was his last gift that he opened from Grandpa and Grandma - a Playmobil garage!  He squealed with glee when he opened it and was super excited to get it out to play with.  It is definitely a favorite toy around the house now.  As always, Carson had so much fun with all of his cousins.  They all play together very well and have a blast together!  He always looks so forward to getting together with them. 

On the morning of the 26th, we headed west for brunch in Grand Rapids at Kevin's Uncle Randy's and Aunt Gretchen's house to celebrate with the Van Heukelum family.  Carson and Rebecca were nearly inseparable again - they love seeing each other so much.  It was a wonderful party - great food, great company, great music, great times!  We had a delicious brunch and spent lots of time visiting.  We listened to the older great-grandkids read the Christmas stotry, then we all sang some Christmas songs.  Uncle Randy played his guitar and sang a few songs, Anna played her violin, and Joel played his electric guitar.  Then the great-grandchildren opened some gifts from Great Grandpa and Great Grandma and it was time for the big reveal.  The entire family - aunts, uncles, and all the cousins - went in together on a nice Christmas gift for Great Grandpa and Great Grandma... a big screen TV!  They were very surprised and seemed thrilled with it!  It was so great to see their surprise and excitement! 

Later in the week, we went over to Nana's and Papa's house to celebrate Christmas with them and Aunt Lindsay.  We had a nice dinner and then opened gifts.  Carson was very excited about his new drum set and screamed for about 10 seconds when he opened the Lego Apple Tree House set.  :)  He has been quite fun this year with his reactions to gifts.  I hope he continues to find such joy in years to come.  And he loves his new Nerf guns, too.  He and Daddy have had many Nerf wars throughout the house, much to Jet's dismay.  :) 

Finally, we celebrated with the Moore family on New Year's Day.  We were supposed to celebrate with them the weekend before Christmas, but something came up and we ended up postponing it until New Year's Day.  It worked out well.  Unfortunately, it didn't work out for Michelle and Tyson to join us.  But the rest of us still had a lot of fun.  Carson and Macie had a lot of fun together.  We had a nice dinner, opened gifts, and watched lots of old home movies from when my cousins and I were little.  What fun times we had - and they are hilarious to look back on now! 

That wraps up all of our Christmas celebrations for 2011.  We are blessed with wonderful, generous family for which we have shared and made many memories with this year.  Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from the Holleboom Family!

I thought I'd share our picture from our Christmas card and annual letter... Merry Christmas (slightly belated)!!

Hello family and friends! 

It’s time for the annual Christmas letter!  We sure enjoy reading all of the letters we receive and always look forward to them.  We hope this finds you well and healthy and that you have all had a good year.  It has been a wonderful year at our house.  Full of many fun times spent with family and friends, by which many great memories were made. 

Kevin continues to work for TRW Automotive as a Logistics Specialist.  His job requires a good deal of travel around the United States.  This year, he has made many trips to the Virginia/Tennessee area, as well as to Lafayette, Indiana.  We thought Kevin would have to make a lengthy trip to China earlier in the year, but thankfully he was able to handle things from his office in Livonia and did not have to make the trip afterall. 

Sara continues to enjoy her job at MDOT as the International Border Crossing and Trade Specialist.  It has been a busy year with the administration change, which led to renewed excitement and activity in several projects that Sara has been working on.  In addition to her involvement on the New International Trade Crossing, she has also been quite involved in the Accelerated Rail efforts that are currently underway in Michigan.

Carson celebrated his 3^rd birthday in February with a Cat in the Hat themed party.  He continues to be such a happy, curious, funny, ambitious, loving, sweet little guy.  Carson played indoor soccer at the beginning of the year, which he enjoyed once he got over his initial shyness.  They didn’t play organized games at such a young age, but rather worked on ball handling skills, teamwork and sportsmanship, and just having fun.  

This fall, Carson started attending preschool two mornings a week at Faith Lutheran Preschool in Grand Blanc.  He really loves the time he spends at school.  He adores his teachers and has made many new friends.  He has just really grown up a lot in the few short months he's been there.  We enjoy seeing his growth, both spiritually and emotionally.  As parents, it really has been an amazing thing to witness the innocence and undoubting faith in God of a young child.  We look forward to watching his continued growth in months and years to come. 

As always, we spent lots of time with family and friends this year.  We did so many fun things!  We took full advantage of both our zoo and children/science museum memberships and visited many different zoos and children’s museums in the MidWest.  We also attended several basketball games and waterski shows.  We went sledding, camping, swimming, hiking, exploring, and tailgating.  We took several day trips this summer to local beaches and to Lake Michigan.  We welcomed lots of new babies, went to several weddings, and celebrated many great birthdays with family members and friends.  It was just a great year overall. 

We were fortunate enough to have taken many fantastic vacations this past year.  We traveled to Scottsdale, Arizona; Denver, Colorado; Sheboygan, Wisconsin; Lafayette, Indiana; Memphis, Tennessee; and Niagara Falls, Ontario.  We got to see some amazing sights, do lots of fun things, and spend some great, quality time together as a family. 

One of the highlights of our summer was enjoying our backyard swimming pool.  We were offered a year-old above-ground swimming pool by a friend of Sara’s mom, which we took up on her offer.  We were very thankful that we did, too!  We spent many hours swimming and keeping cool during the hot summer we experienced here in Michigan.  Carson continues to love the water and is quite the little fish.   

The highlight of our year came in late October when we learned of a great blessing to come to our family… a new baby!  With God’s blessings, we will be welcoming a new baby into our family in June 2012!  It has been a rough pregnancy so far, but we are all very excited for the end result.  And hopefully Sara will start to feel a little better soon, as she progresses through the second trimester. 

So now we find ourselves preparing for Christmas and a new year.  We are excited to see what the new year brings, as it’s sure to be something great!  We pray that your new year is, as well!    

We wish you a very blessed holiday season! 

Love,

The Holleboom Family

(Kevin, Sara, Carson, Baby #2, Jet, and Denver)