Our Christmas!

Playing with Uncle Jim

Tammy, Alex and Thomas...bellies full and ready for bed!

My niece Andrea and Jason...btw...he popped the question and she said yes!! :)

How does this thing work??

Oh My! Look at all these Build A Bear clothes!!

Ha...I see those pinkies up!
I think you're making fun of me!!

Paintball anyone??

At least her hands and feet will be warm...naaaa NEVER!!

Brian LOVES his t-shirts!!

Joseph helping me empty my stocking of all the Dove Chocolate!!
Ahhh, Santa knows me well!!

Anna's favorite gift...a DS and games...from her big brother!!
The kids "regift" to one another....
it's always cool to see what they come up with.

Go Speed Racer...Go!

Can you find the two hidden kids in this picture??
Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!!

Over this holiday season I got for myself a little present. I have been wanting to upgrade my computer skills and have been watching www.churchmediadesign.tv Brad is an amazing teacher has really produced some great stuff. I have been inspired, so I'm jumping in. Adobe is really much more complex than I thought. This suite has some really great programs in it.

• Adobe Illustrator CS4
• Adobe Photoshop CS4 Extended
• Adobe Flash CS4
• Adobe After Effects CS4
• Adobe Premiere Pro CS4
• Adobe Encore CS4
• Adobe OnLocation CS4
• Adobe Soundbooth CS4

I'm starting with Illustrator, Jessica is excited about Photoshop. I'll keep you updated on our progress as we learn. It's my goal to be cranking out some great looking church material here in the next few months. Oh yea, along with my churchmediadesign.tv lessons I received a few 30 day trial to a website called lynda.com. I've got 30 days of free lessons to soak up from them too. Should be fun, and who said you can't teach an old dog new tricks?

What Could Have Been...

Our computer had taken a dive so we ended up taking it to our trusty computer repair guy...who just happens to be a good friend also!! It was in dire need of some updating and we had pretty much maxed out all the memory. I don't know all the specifics (that's Brians dept.) but from what I hear our hard drive was going out. Which to me means I almost lost ALL MY PICTURES!! Thankfully, Brian bought an external hard drive some time back and had dumped all our pictures on it. It looks like he had done that in September...so I've only lost a couple months. Even though that was the b-day months here in the Holland House, I'm not gonna get greedy...it could've been a lot worse! BUT...I still think there is something to be said for printing them out and storing them in shoeboxes in the closet. Although other disasters could occur...it wouldn't be computer related!! ~Jaye

Anna Graduates!!

Yeah!! Anna graduated from IWU with her Bachelors in Accounting.

Does that mean she'll get a job in some far off town...away from us!! :(

Love ya, Anna...we're so proud of you!! :)

Christmas Give-a-ways

Check this out and maybe you can win. But I really hope to get the ipod myself.

I'm Not Holding My Breath...

We have internet...tonight!! woo hoo! I will be on tomorrow to update!! I know you all have been on pins and needles awaiting the latest from the Holland House!! Hang in there...we'll getcha all informed!! :) ~Jaye

Sorry

Sorry for no updates....as you may have guessed we are having internet problems at the house....again, or still however you want to look at it. Have any of you ever tried to blog using dial up? I'm thinking about switching back?

Happy Birthday, Sweet 16!!

16 years ago today we were blessed with a beautiful, red headed baby girl!!

Although today she turns 16...she is still our beautiful, red headed baby girl!!

Happy Birthday, Jess!!

Enjoy

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This is us...

Brian took this pic some time ago. He was feeling sentimental and wanted to remember what it was like in this season of our lives. I know our coat closet won't always look this way. Our kids will be out of the house before we know it...but for now I'm soaking it in and enjoying all I can. I am just amazed how this represents our lives so well!! This is us...sometimes unorganized, sometimes hectic, sometimes chaotic...but throughout it all always together, always a family...that's us!! :)

Indian Summer at the Park

Halloween 08

Anna's Spider Cookies

Anna won this cool "stocking" of Halloween goodies in a drawing at the grocery store!!

Save those seeds...yummo!!

On our way to trick or treat...he almost fell asleep and dropped his candy!

After stopping at this house Joseph informed me that he doesn't like ducks!!

Wesley's Cookie Making Adventure

Hmmm...his look says it all!

Cleaning the Pantry

One of my "Fall Break" projects was to clean out our pantry. It seems to be the catch all of the junk in our house that has no place else to go! It's easy to close the door and hide it all also...so that has been done all summer long!

Joseph thought the empty shelf made a perfect bed!

This was so much fun...Jessica joined in.

Now we have bunk beds. At this rate we could have beds for 4 more kids!!

Halloween Pics from the Past!!

Witchy Jaye ~ Back in '76
A fun memory from this costume...back in the day at our school Halloween party when we were allowed to dress up. I remember carrying this hat, which was made of poster board, on the bus. Everything else was tucked inside a grocery sack but I couldn't hide the hat. A kid said, "I bet I know what you're gonna be!" That totally ticked me off..why I don't know but when I think of this kid...I think of that comment!!
Hmmmm, random I know!

Jessica ~ Baby Bop and Wesley ~ Baby Cow
This Baby Bop costume was awesome...and I made it myself. She was really into
Barney at this age. Funny we still have this costume in our attic.

Andi Olsen ~ Clown, Eric Olsen ~ Cow, Alex Armstrong ~ Vampire (neices and nephew),
Jessica ~ Princess, Wes ~ Superman!

This is a sign I drove past this summer. How about next years sign saying..."Have an Adventure this Summer!" Or "Go Crazy! No More Homework!" Or "Play Hard, Stay Up Late, Sleep In!" What would you put up for the summer sign?

Rock Band!

I'm the only one brave enough to make a fool of myself and do the vocals!

Notice...Wes' gift and he's not playing it!!
We had to be playing "Eye of the Tiger" here...it's the only song
Anna knows the words to!