Jace's 5th Birthday

5 Things I Love About Jace

He tends to be a little grumpy in the morning until he gets a love from me.

Jace loves to wrestle especially with dad (this will satisfy him in the morning if he hasn't had a love yet.) When his older brothers are willing, they will let him take 'em to the ground, and he is very serious about his wrestling matches.

He already 'wheels and deals' with me to be rewarded. If he wants to play the Wii, Lego Batman, or a game on my phone, he knows he needs to get a job done beforehand.

Jace is always looking out for his sister Hannah...He let's Rachel dress him up for whatever production she is putting on...He loves to share anything with Zack, and would follow Z to the ends of the earth...and he always complains about Brady teasing him.

He plays hard all day long...but just like his dad...he crashes at the end of the day. It's been said that Jace has 2 speeds....go and dead to the world.

Happy Birthday buddy...we hope you had an excellent Lego party.



Breakfast in bed...always a tradition.

Taking a bite out of his cake...another fun tradition.

Fun Lego candy for the tops of the cupcakes.

Jake Clayson bonking Jace on the head.

We make giant legos for his friend birthday party.

Blowing the candles out on the cake.

Jacob, Robert, Reagan, and Alyssa.

Chloe, Rachel, Mitchell, Jace and Bryson.

Baby Seth

He's here! Seth Eldon Holmes was born Tuesday, October 12, 2010 at 1:55pm. He weighed 8 lbs. 14 oz. and was 20 inches long. He didn't come out screaming which always makes me a little nervous...I'd rather have my babies pinching a fit, but he just seems to be very mild tempered. (Let's see how he reacts to the chaos at home with 5 siblings.) Am I surprised that it's a boy? Nope...I had a feeling all along. (Even though the only other child I had guessed correctly was Brady...11 1/2 years ago.) But I'm glad I was right...even though I would have been glad if I had been wrong too.
Anyhow the delivery went great...only 3 1/2 hours...I told the nurses when we came in that I would probably go fast. (My total labor time for all 6 kids...adds up to a grand total of 23 hours, so I have no room to complain.) We were hoping he'd make his grand entrance on Sunday, when the date was 10/10/10, but he was just too snug and cozy I guess. I walked 3 miles after church that day by myself (which was quite enjoyable since I was able to listen to the General Relief Society meeting un-interupped). And that evening before dinner the whole family went on a 2 mile walk...that actually took us about an hour, Nate was disappointed with our time of 30 minute miles, but what do you expect with 5 kids and a pregnant/waddling mama? Needless to say, my calves were a little sore from Dead Mans Hill the next day, even though I worked out 4 times last week.
When we came in Tuesday morning, Nate was going on 30+ hours of being awake, but as long as he kept moving around and got something to eat, his adrenaline kicked right in. (He worked Monday, and then had to go in Monday night for a midnight maintenance.) When he got home at 5:30am... he knew he'd rather play basketball than sleep...so off he went. Priorities right? By the time Nate got home, the hospital had called and asked us to be there by 8:30...or as soon as we could make it in. Once we got the 3 older kids off to school, our good friend Annie Clayson watched Jace and Hannah for us for the day.
Seth is doing great, he just got back from his hearing screening and passed. He's only lost 3 oz, but since he is considered a bigger baby, that's just fine. He does have to keep having his glucose checked because he is bigger (I guess being 4 days early and nearly 9 lbs, labels you as a bigger baby), but it always comes back in the low-average scale.
I think he looks a lot like Brady and Rachel. He's not as blond, but he's definitely not a brunette like the other 3. Plus the round chubby cheeks remind me of those 2. The kids are all smitten, of course, and now that Seth is here, I don't think they even remember if they wanted a girl or boy sibling.
Luckily Nate has 5 days paid paternity leave (I'm loving ancestry.com right now ;-), and is getting to play Mr. Mom. I never really worry when I have to leave, because he is such a great dad, and can get the kids up and going as long as he promises a good WWF match.
I'm just so happy Seth is here, and I can't wait to see how his personality will blend with those that are at home. Looking at the picture with all 6 kids really does make me feel that our family is complete. I'm so grateful that my Heavenly Father trusts me with all these souls, even though I'm the one that is supposed to be teaching them daily, I feel like I learn something new each day from at least one of them. I'm also to thankful for Nate and his sweet blessing for me before we came into the hospital. He works so hard for our family and always just says that he merely 'finances' the operation, but he does so much more behind the scenes. But I am grateful that I do have the opportunity to stay home and watch these sweet spirits grow into awesome kids!
Sorry to be a little sappy, you know how emotional new mama's can get.


Here at last...he is our biggest baby...I guess he's the winner!

It'll be interesting to see how her emotions play out not being the baby of the family anymore.

He sleeps just like his daddy.

Rachel is going to be a great helper...both with Seth and Hannah.

I'm glad he woke up for when the kids came to see him.

Last week when I doubled over in pain because of the baby hitting my nerve, Jace asked me if I was Okay. I told hid that the baby had just kicked me. He then replied, "That's not good manners."

As Brady was holding him, he says..."He looks like a football player." The boy has a one track mind.

Me and all 6 kiddos...it doesn't seem like a lot of kids until I say it.

First family photo.

Disney Character Breakfast

Last year a friend of mine started a tradition to have 'Back to School' breakfasts' the week before school started, to get our kids back in the habit of getting up early and getting ready for school. We had 5 families sign up, with about 24 kids all together, and started breakfast every morning at a different house. It was a lot of fun, and the kids absolutely love it. (Of course some mornings, I think they played together more than they ate, but at least they were up and at-em.)

But I wanted to make a special post about a family in our neighborhood that went above and beyond the call of duty. Heather Pack and her family put together a Disney Character breakfast to cap off our week long activity. (All 5 of her kids, except for Johnny age 10, are in Jr High or High School, so they didn't join us during the previous week...although we would have gladly taken them in.)

On Monday morning, at 8:00am we had a fantastic breakfast at the Packs' home. Complete with Mickey Mouse pancakes, eggs, sausage, fruit and juice. Yummy...yummy...but of course the highlights were the Disney Characters that served the kids their breakfast. (Heather even made sure the actors weren't people that the kids would recognize.) There was Alice in Wonderland, Snow White (who apparantly worked at Disneyland and has had great practice), Prince Charming, and Cinderella.

The kids were able to wear costumes if they wanted. Jace was 'all over' dressing up as Capt' Jake Sparrow...he looked so cute. Hannah had on a Cinderella dress before she realized that Rachel wasn't dressing up, and then wouldn't have anything to do with it after that....;-( sigh. Zack just wore his Indiana Jones hat, and Brady thought about wearing a basketball jersey to be a character from High School Musical, but all of our are blue, so that didn't really pan out. But dressed up or not, the kids LOVED LOVED LOVED it. We even pointed out, as moms, of their GREAT table manners, since it was such a different experience. (I of course grilled my kids on good behavior before we went, and told them that if we were to attend a character breakfast in Disneyland...it would have cost about $30 a person...so they knew it was a special opportunity.) In talking with Heather, who has attended a character breakfast, it was a lot more fun than the original. (She said the food was better at Disneyland...but the characters were more of a treat here.)
I'm just in awe of how generous the Packs' were...and we couldn't thank them enough...what a great way to end our tradition!


Capt' Jace Sparrow

All the Holmes' Kids on top of the castle


Zack was trying to hide underneath his Indiana Jones hat from my camera...he must have been smitten by Alice in Wonderland

Jace also would only mummer an answer to Cinderella...but look at that cute little grin peeking out.


Cinderella talking to Brady


All the Holmes' Kids with the Disney Characters


Heather Pack with all the Disney Characters

4th of July

We had a great 4th of July hanging out with family. What was even better, was having the 4th on Sunday this year and celebrating our freedom of religion. It made the regular activities string out for a couple of days, but hey we're partiers...no problem. Nate ran in the 10K for the Freedom Festival and placed really well. That morning, since I couldn't run, I took the kids to the Hot Air Balloon launch. We hadn't been for the past 3 years, since Nate and I are usually running in the race. We all loved it, and it gets us over to Provo for the parade nice and early. We had Mason and Jaden Bethea staying with us that weekend, so B and Z were in heaven. For the fireworks show...we decided to head over to Provo and had great seats right on University Ave. What a great weekend it was to spend together.


Brady, Jaden, Mason, Rachel, and Zack....all the older kids at the balloon launch.

Holmes' kids

Little Miss Hannah


Hannah, Grammee and Bella

Zonked Out

This year we got a pool pass to PG Pool. It has been so nice to be able to let B and Z go down whenever they want to with friends and they can swim to their hearts content. (They usually ride scooters down, but call me to pick them up since they are 'so tired' after swimming and it's all uphill to our house.) I like to go as much as possible too, but with Hannah still needing naps, it's a little more tricky.

Rachel has done well even without swim lessons, and now jumps off the diving board and swims to the side. Jace is our little fish, and loves to do a 'dead man's float' with his face in the water, to see how long he can hold his breath. This has only made one lifeguard jump in after him, thinking that he was drowning...but both Nate and I were close by, and knew what Jace was doing...but it sure scared the lifeguard half to death. Even though he was embarrassed, Nate still thanked him for doing his job. You can never be too safe.

Speaking of Nate...we sure have enjoyed the times when he has joined us at the pool. It's been nice to go there after he gets off work, or when we've all been working hard in the yard all day, and to enjoy the time together as a family.

I don't ever take the camera to pool, but I couldn't resist these pictures of the younger two, after a fun filled day at the pool.

Cousin Craziness

In June, my sister Emma and her husband were attending girls camp for their ward, and asked if we could watch their 4 kids' ages 10, 6, 4/5 (Mitchell had a birthday while he was at our house ;-), and 1. Boy was it a lot of work, but the kids absolutely loved it. I made sure that we had plenty of activities, which made for some crazy days, but boy did those kids crash at bedtime. (They also ate really good, which I worried about having so many different types of eaters.) Luckily it was Strawberry Days here in PG, and combined with baseball, swimming, a birthday party, we had plenty to do. (I can hardly believe I took 9 kids swimming by myself, but it turned out great with the help of Brady and Zack.)

We had a great time hanging out with our cousins for a week and I'm so grateful that my kids consider their cousins their 'Best Friends'.


I've said it before and I'll say it again...sandbox's are worth their weight in gold. I love it when I find my 5 kiddos out there playing together...but what was even better was to find all 9 kids playing together nicely that week.

Mitchell and Jace at the library summer program. (I love PG library for this, they go for an hour listen to stories and make a craft, and also earn a treat.)

PG Strawberry Days

We just love PG Strawberry Days in June. There are so many activities that just make you love this town and the people that live here. Every year there is a children's parade, and each stake/ward is asked to participate. Even though there isn't much of a crowd along the sides, the kids love dressing up and walking the short distance. This year's theme was "Dream Big"...so our ward decided to have the kids dress up as their favorite hero. (Thank goodness we have a plethora of costumes here and the kids could dress up just how they wanted.) We were grateful to our Grammee for being there to cheer us on...especially since it was during the week when we had 4 cousins staying with us. The weather was quite chilly that night, so the popsicles weren't as big of a hit as in years past. But the kids also get a ticket to the PG Rodeo that night (which we still haven't been too...I know gasp), and a carnival ticket. Which I'm not a huge fan of, but we always go and ride a few rides and get a few treats.


It was a challenge to get a picture of all 9 kids that I brought..but here is a group shot. Brady was a PG Football player, Zack was a soccer player, Taylor was a college graduate, and Mitchell was a dinosaur...whatever works huh?

Jace was a Ninja warrior...we also had bubbles for the kids to blow and play with during the parade...works well with the dagger I think.

Tanner, my nephew, wanted to dress up as a Bakugan guy.

Hannah wanted to be a chef...(this was Rachel's first choice, since that is what she wants to be when she grows up)...luckily Rachel changed her mind.

We just dressed Bella up a princess, she wasn't too happy with the cold wind.

Rachel decided to be a cowgirl.








Here are some pictures from the carnival. Rachel and Hannah are in the front car, Jace is in the 3rd car back. I didn't get any pictures of the B and Z...since they decided to go and ride all the scary rides by themselves. (But their tummies sure paid for it later ;-)

Boys' Running

During the summer, like everyone else, we have a chore list for the kids to complete before they can do anything else. Cleaning chores are of course at the top of the list, but it also includes reading, homework assignments, piano practicing... and running. We wanted the 2 older boys to run a mile each day. Doesn't sound like a lot, but to a 9 and 11 year old...it was at first. But they did it 'willingly', and have improved their times tremendously. (Even though we live in a 'hilly' neighborhood, 13th East is pretty flat, and at the end of the road on 2nd south the stop sign is exactly 1/2 mile away...so they run there and then run back.)

When Brady started going to football camps in the middle of July, I noticed that he was coming in with the top 10 boys out of about 60/70 6th and 7th graders, when they would have the final run at the end of the night. I asked him if it was easier to run that final football field, since he had been running all summer long, and he had to admit that he was grateful for Nate and I making him run every day. (It's nice when your 'work' of parenting starts to pay off and they can admit that you are right ;-)

After a few weeks of running, Jace started asking me daily if he could run with the boys. I really didn't want to let him, because I knew he would slow them down immensely and I didn't know if he could make it the whole way. But one day I 'caved' and let him go with the boys. Brady said Jace did great until he fell about 3 houses down from ours and skinned his knee. (Then he whined until he saw me waiting with the camera...which immediately perked him up.) Since then Jace doesn't ask me to run with the boys quite as often, but he is always asking me if he can run to his friend Reagan's house...which is about 2 blocks away. One day he actually did it, by himself, without me knowing...scared me to death! We had the stranger danger talk and the always telling mom where you are going talk soon after that.


Brady, Jace and Zack running home.

Thanks Brady for making sure Jace made it home safely...skinned knee and all.

Jace's T-ball

T-ball has got to be one of the most entertaining sports...it's hilarious to see what the kids will do when they are out on the field.

This was Jace's first year, and he absolutely loved it! Of course his favorite part was actually hitting the ball off the T, but up next was definitely the treats!

Even though he had to play a few games in his flip-flops (because of lost shoes...oh what summer brings ;-), he didn't mind just as long as his shirt was tucked in and he looked Super-Cool. (He always asked me that before we went to his game...silly boy.)

He loved having his own mitt...even if it was a hand-me-down from his brothers.

See what I mean about the tucked in shirt...he's gotta look good as he's rounding the bases.

Up to bat with Coach Annie Clayson.

His coaches knew that keeping the kids entertained was all part of playing the game...they loved this water mister on the side lines.

Sure love this kiddo!