It's only been a year and a half since my last post, not too shabby. I came here to see if it was still up and alas, here it is so I will post a few pics.  It seems a little obsolete now that we have facebook, but the original idea was for it to be a family journal that you could at some point send to a company and they would make it into a book. Hmm... not sure if I will do that or not.

Things have been obviously busy around here. Brian with work, me with work and household, children and the like, Cameron and James with school and baseball and basketball and cavorting around with the neighborhood gang. Xander has kept us all busy with just being his busy, fun and determined self. Here are some fun pics over the past year. Bri and I loving our boys!

                                 We hope this finds all of you well! Love, Rachel and Boys

Oh, yeah, I have a blog....

I just remembered that I have a blog and, you know, I was thinking I should probably update it. Here are some pictures keep you up to speed. Since last April we have all gotten about 91/2 months older, I have started working part time for my old billing company, Brian's business has grown and he just moved into a nicer office and the kids have gotten smarter. Other than that things are still about the same. It has been a pretty good year so far, except that everyone in our house was sick at some point in the month of January. It wasn't fun, but February is looking better already! :)

Boy Photos

Thanks to Bev, we have some pictures of the boys. I am really sad,the thought of wrangling the boys at Sears Portrait Studio sounds like genuine torture. I would love to have one of those fancy photographers take our pictures, and I will, but not at this time. I will wait until I have enough money not to cringe when I see the bill. I know, it is the Holtom in me. Besse would be so proud. Anyway, thanks to Aunt Bev for the pictures.

Playing in the snow

Here in Idaho when it is 35 degrees that means it is time to play outside. A few years ago I would have balked at the idea, but alas here we are in the snow cave Jake dug for the boys.

Baby Alexander!!!

We were so happy to have baby Alexander arrive on January 27th at 7:10 pm. He was 7 lbs, 13 oz. and he was 19.5 inches long. He looks like both of his brothers and we all adore him. He has a full head of dark brown hair and blue eyes, though they may change in time. He looks the most like Brian to me and Jodanna calls him "little Eggleston baby". He likes to eat and sometime gets a little bit of a hurt tummy, but other than that he has been a good baby once we get that bubble out!!! I am so happy to not be pregnant and so in love with my new little one.

Christmas

We had a nice and quiet Christmas this year. We were at Grandma's house and uncle Jason was there too. The boys got the beloved Zhu Zhu pets, games, Blaster and Darwin from G-Force, some Bakugans and a few other things. Sometimes I think I should have spent more and then I am always glad that I didn't go overboard because they lose interest so quickly. I have kept the Christmas toys in a bin and I bring them out every couple of days and it seems to keep the house a little cleaner and they seem to play better with them when they are not just sitting out. All in all it was a very nice day.

Christmas Card Pictures

Here are our Christmas Card Pictures. It tends to be a little stressful for me to get the boys to cooperate so this year I was going to have a "real" photographer take them and have them done in black and white. Well, as you can see a very poor photographer shot these before church one day, but at least it didn't cost me anything, can you tell???? Ha. Anyway, they are cute boys so these will do. My favorite picture is the one where JJ has the magnetic dart in his ear and Cam is just laughing at him. I am just trying to keep it real.

Halloween Spiders

My boys wanted to be tarantulas for Halloween. I though it sounded easy enough. The only problem was that the fishing line between the legs broke after a while. Considering we had three different Halloween parties to go to, my mom and I had some fun with fishing line....This year was the first time both boys went from house to house in our neighborhood and we had a blast. Brian was the master pumpkin carver and I was just interested in baking the pumpkin seeds. We also had one of those bowls from Target that had the electronic hand in it. It provided a lot of entertainment for the week. We had to replace the batteries. I can still hear it in my head, "want some candy..." It was a great Halloween.

Cameron is in Kindergarten!

Cameron started Kindergarten this week. He was really excited and he didn't seem to be nervous at all. I wasn't nervous at first, but when he started to ride the bus I have to admit I wanted to go with him and hold his hand, luckily, I overcame my mother hen tendancies. After his second day of school he told me that he "needed to put a lock on those bells at school because they don't work right. They don't give him enough time to play". Spoken like a true boy. Gotta love it. He was so excited for show and tell. At first he wanted to put JJ in a box and take him, but then he got a remote control taranula, and well, sorry JJ, but that won out in the end. It should be a great year.

Summer

This has probably been the lamest summer ever for me. Unfortunatly, I spent most of the summer on the couch. I sometimes feel bad that the boys did not get to do that many fun things, but they don't seem to be fazed at all. Summer is so short in Idaho, basically July and August, that I want to fit so many things in. The boys spent a lot of time riding their bikes and we did manage a Lagoon trip with some cousins and a trip to Ross Park with some other cousins. We did make a short California trip in June too, so I guess they did get to do some fun things. I just can't wait to finally feel better. Then I will resume all of my "duties" with fervor and excellence. Well, maybe not excellence, but mediocrity??? In the end, it will all be worth it!!!

Tball

T-ball has been a great adventure. I was one of the coaches in the beginning but then we went to California and then I was sick so I passed my shirt on to someone else. It was pretty easy to do. I have been proud of Cameron. When he hits the ball he knows where to run and then also runs to the correct base after someone else hits the ball. Its not rocket science, but that comes from someone who was raised at the baseball field, so I may be a little biased. Here are a few pics of Cameron and JJ playing with Grandma. Thank goodness for Grandma, JJ would have been lost without her.