23

Twenty three years ago very, very early this morning I became a mom.
Love this girl so much and I am so thankful God chose her for me.

In celebration of her day, here are 23 you may not know about Holly...

1. She loves old people.
2. She would rather go to a museum by herself.
3. She knows every line that Donkey speaks in "Shrek."
4. She hates roller roasters.
5. She's a good dancer.
6. She has a scar by her left eyebow.  John was going to put some stitches in but she cried so hard he couldn't do it.
7. She has her dad wrapped around her little finger.
8. She can consume extremely large amounts of ice cream and not get a stomach ache.
9. She has used a yearly planner obsessively since the 5th grade.
10. Blood, guts, poop....none of it really bothers her.
11. She loves Michigan beaches but misses Washington mountains.
12. She's eaten a crawdad.
13. She really wants one of those cats with the squished-in face.
14. She nearly always falls asleep when watching movies.
15. She nearly always falls asleep in a car.
16. She requires a lot of sleep.
17. She has a slight obsession with water bottles.
18. She refuses to open crescent roll tubes.
19. She hates coffee.
20. She loves to bake.
21. She loves footwear of all types.
22. She sings all. the. time.
23. She started out a miniature John but the older she gets, the more she takes after me.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SWEET GIRL!  See you soon!

Life Lately

Nothing too exciting happening at the Hiemstra House.  I hear birds singing in the morning (which is quite a miracle considering Carly hates birds and considers it her duty to keep them out of our yard) and my hostas are coming up so I am happy.
Here's a little smattering of some life lately
I went "eagle watching" with some coffee ladies one day.  We only saw two eagles but we got Starbucks, ate donuts and had lunch together so I call that a success.

Here is my current letter board status.  I can't take credit for this one - a friend sent me the saying and said she thought of me.  My friends know me so well.

Katie had a friend over on President's Day when there was no school and they set up a little "Beat the Winter Blues" party for Sam and I.  There were treats and games and a guess-the-Disney-song contest that I didn't win.

Our cute hostesses.

Yes, Ryan was invited too.

I am still working a couple days a week in the middle school library.  This is the current bulletin board I did.  I'm pretty proud of it.

On one of my morning walks, I had to take a picture of the beautiful sky since this hasn't happened much in the last couple months

Most mornings, Carly looks like this after our walk.

Our new patio is coming along.  Very, very slowly.  They poured the border last week and if the rain stays away Saturday, the plan is to pour the middle. My backyard is a giant mud pit.

If anyone is in the market for a painted rock, I know just your gal.  Katie has been very into rock painting lately.  Let me know - the price is right (and by that I mean free).

I ordered some books for John and my upcoming romantic get-a-way.   I'm not sure what John is doing on our romantic get-a-way but I plan to sit in the sun and read a book.

So there is a big picture hanging in Holly's apartment of her two roommates with two former roommates they had at Calvin.  It's super cute but apparently Holly was feeling a little left out that she wasn't in it.  Either that or she's going a little crazy working nights and having a little too much free time during the day.  Either that or she's becoming more and more like her mother.

She replaced the girls she did not know with a photo of herself and one of Bryan (who is a smaller version of Ryan that I sent Holly at Dordt because she really wanted a skeleton of her own I'm just like that).  I thought it was hilarious but it apparently got mixed reviews from her roommates.
And here's one more picture of a skeleton.  It's Ryan all jazzed up for St. Patty's day.

3 Things

Three things I love about...
Katie ❤

1. She is tough.
2. She tells me she loves me all time.
3. She still like me to read to her.

Sam ❤

1. How he is constantly talking about football, even when football is long over.
2. He loves babies.
3. His favorite music is 80's.

Holly ❤

1. She is adventurous.

2. She shares my love of anything Jane Austen.
3. She is always singing.

John ❤

1. He's never crabby.
2. He helps the kids with their math homework.
3. He never says no when I tell him I need to go out to eat.

Projects

There has been a couple projects going on at the Hiemstra Hide-a-way.  That probably comes as no shock to anyone.  I'm fairly sure John could take a year off from work and still not finish all the projects he has going on here!
Our new deck (which comes off the back of the house) is coming along very slowly.  I'm okay with it since it's not exactly sit-outside-and-enjoy-the-weather weather right now.

Yes, it is big.  It will be covered with a metal roof.
I think the next step is to pour the cement (why does it feel like we are constantly pouring cement?) and then they can start framing it.
John has been working on the loft above the bathroom in the shop.

He's putting the railing up.  It's starting to look super nice.  Not sure what exactly we're putting up there yet??

John and Katie have been working on a school project too.  They built a box to see how long it can keep an ice cube frozen.  She had to have it to school today but I don't think they are testing out the boxes until next week.  I'll keep you updated on how there's does...

I'm not sure why but John needed an entire pound of bacon and some spiked eggnog to get through this project.

As for my projects...

Real quick

Cause there are just some things I just need to say...
Like this.

And this.  We got a recliner.  We've never had a recliner before.  I got it because I thought now that John is almost 50 he really needs an old man chair but Katie has claimed it as hers.

Also, why have I never read this book before?

I loved it!  If I were president I would make it a required read in high school.
And then there's these two love birds.  My mom and dad celebrated 51 years on January 31.  They went out with friends who sent me this picture.

Finally, I need all those Ryan fans out there to know that he is a big show off.

Yes Ryan, I realize you are much more flexible than I am.

Holly came home!

Since our Michigan girl couldn't make it home for Christmas (the woes of being a nurse) she came back for a bit the middle of January.  Her timing wasn't the bestest since we it was cold and yucky out but we managed to still have lots of fun!
She got here late Thursday night so we all slept in and had a big breakfast Friday morning.
I sure like setting the table for five people again!

We started a tradition quite a while ago to go see a movie over Christmas break so we waited for Holly to see Star Wars.  Big thumbs up from all of us.

Saturday Katie convinced us to go play in the snow.

We did some sledding.

I love Sam and Katie's faces in this one!

This is how they ended up.

Sledding apparently really tires Sam out.  John had to assist him back to the house.

We then decided to build Ryan a snow throne.

We do good work!

Saturday night we had Christmas with Holly.  We all got some pretty cool Michigan swag.
John also got a meat injector that he was very excited about.

Sunday and Monday were spent sleeping in, playing lots of board games, and studying for a biology final.

And a trip back to Washington wouldn't be complete without Edaleen ice cream....never mind it was freezing cold out.

Tuesday when John was back to work and the kids were back in school, Holly and I spent the day together.  We had lunch in Bellingham, did a little shopping and watched Little Women.

Wednesday morning I had to bring her back to the airport. :(
Not much time to miss her though - we will see her in sunny Arizona in a couple of weeks!