Grandma May

Click here to view this photo book larger

Start your own Shutterfly Photo Book today.

Our New Holm

 It was no easy task to find an apartment close to the High School where Dillon will be teaching while we were living in Delaware and Minnesota. Took a lot of anxiety and prayers, but we finally found a place in the location we were hoping for.

It is as older home, and we live in the basement below a cute woman in her 80s. Being an older home means low ceilings and a very odd layout, but we are SO HAPPY & RELIEVED to be in our own home again with our things out of storage. It's been a long 3.5 months.

Our living room

Notice off to the right, this is Vince's corner of the living room

This is Vince's play area in the living room.

The best part of our apartment is how Vince friendly it is. We have a special 3rd bedroom were all of our bookshelves, and things Vince might get into are kept. Meaning our little explorer/climber is free to roam everywhere else and play without having to hear "no" often.

Our tiny little kitchen

This is the "bonus room" that came with our 2-bedroom place. It is a big utility room where we keep our bookshelves, desk, keyboard, storage closet... it's where Vince is not allowed.

The other half of the bonus room

Vincey's bedroom! He loves taking out his toys, and happily putting them back fairly often.

This bus bounce-house is a big attraction for Vincey

Vince loves shutting his door on me so he can play by himself, he thinks it's so funny. I think it's cute and (as long as it doesn't involve poopy diapers) am happy for short spans of time to myself.

He feels like a king watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse in his recliner

He loves the new set-up at the house.

Last 2 Weeks in the "Holm-Land"

We sure love Minnesota... It was all too easy to forget about the -40 winter temps, 4 foot snowdrifts, 85% humidity in the summer when we had nothing but beautiful July weather to lull us into remembering that the land of 10,000 feels like home.

We had originally planned on spending 2 to 3 weeks in Minnesota, but had the hardest time finding the right apartment to move back into in UT after our trip so we finally extended the stay to nearly the whole month of July. That meant staying long enough to see Hannah and Michelle (Dillon’s sisters) come home from UT and the Caribbean respectively.

We didn’t tell them we extended our trip and let them think we left days before they came in, which they were not happy about. But Hannah was surprised to see us pick her up at the airport, and 3 days later Dillon and I hid in the back of the van to surprise Michelle who cried to see her big brother after all! It was a blast.

 

Poor Hannah came home to find a massive hole in the house, we both instantly claimed not having to be the ones to be there when Joann saw it...

Tommy takes his martial arts very seriously :-D

Love Great-Grandma May’s swing in her backyard.

4 Generations up in Holdingford, MN

Great-Grandma May had Vince’s number when she made lunch, he loved it!

Vince used his own fork for the first time (the same one Grandma Jo used as a little girl)

He was very proud of himself figuring it out, and ate so many noodles I thought he would burst.

I love that Great-Grandpa May is there smiling too!

Vince loves demolishing sandcastles; here he is digging like a dog to hide any evidence of the once 1.5 foot tall pile there

Pleased with his handy-work.

Vince laughs and laughs when we play catch with him (literally WITH him)

Taking a break to cuddle Daddy at the beach (they are under a red umbrella, not sunburned!)

Dillon buried Vince up to his shoulders!

Digging out

Piper was so funny playing with “Baby Bincey”, they had a blast together!

Auntie Hannah chilling with Vince at Tommy’s soccer game

Vince and Auntie Shell

Dillon and Hannah lifting and hammering away

When we told JoAnn we would be coming out for a few weeks she excitedly told us it would overlap with them tearing down and building a new deck. Their old one was very much in need of replacing! When we did the demolition it took only a small tug to rip off the railings and staircase... haha, yikes!

It was a lot of work, but was really nice to get to be helpful and to serve. Dillon was a champ working full-time most days in the backyard while we dug out a hundred wheel barrels full of hard MN clay, took down the deck, cut it up for firewood, cut out four 4 foot footings through a layer of concrete, poured the 4 footings with new concrete, and put up the HEAVY joists. We didn’t quite finish before we left- but got a lot done.

I just love his scrunched up, toothy smile these days!

Vince "helping" put up the deck

Vince was SUPER smiley in the car so I took as many pictures as his mood would allow!

We got to stop in Denver again on our long drive back to UT, the girls and I made cake-bites

I guess I had forgotten to ask them to pretend to like each other...

That's better

The boys

Before I put the kids to bed they insisted on story time- hopeful they forget all of the embarrassing stories I told. They are going to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in October and Kylie wants to finish the last 3 books before then. I told her I have read the entire series out loud to my siblings which lead to reading the first 25 pages of book 5 together before bed.

My favorite moment of the night was prayers before bed. I hope it's not to irreverent to put the text of sweet Landon's prayer on a blog: "Dear heavenly father, thank you that Dillon and Amy could come. Please let angels watch over us. Plese let me dream of Mario, Kaitlyn dream of... gummy bears (a whispered "yes" from Kaitlyn"), and Kylie dream of Harry Potter. In the name of Jesus Christ Amen." Too precious!

Our last night there, having a snuggle party and reading Harry Potter out loud