Spring Break 2011

I love spring break...especially when your husband is a public school teacher! It was so nice to have a week off in the middle of a very crazy spring with a third one on the way, potty training Grace (more to come on that progress), weaning Elijah, and supporting my husband through coaching three spring sports (tennis, track and golf). It was a much needed break for all of us! We were able to spend some time with Cliff's family in Marble Falls and see some of mine in Austin. Thank you family so very much for taking care of us, babysitting so Cliff and I could have some time together, feeding us and loving on us all! Here are a few pictures...wish we would have taken more...

Trip to the Exotic Zoo. So much fun!

Feeding a Buffalo!

Feeding an ostrich. This was a little scary.

Playing the the Llano River

In addition to the activities above we rode around in Mimi's golf cart, Cliff and I went canoeing and bike riding, ate amazing Thai food, watched Lady and the Tramp, went on long walks, drove around and looked at bluebonnets, watched and played basketball, went to the park, saw relatives, took naps and relaxed. Grace is still talking about our trip like it was yesterday telling everyone about the grandparents she was able to see. I think that was her favorite part on ours too :)

Expecting our third, spread the word!

We are expecting another little Holdridge! Hooray! Hooray! Our third little pumpkin will be arriving September 28 which puts me at about 13 weeks and a few days. I almost posted a picture I took of our sonogram but it didn't turn out well, so hopefully I will get a clearer picture next time we do a sonogram (around 20 weeks). I saw him/her a few weeks ago and everything looks great. Their profile is similar to Grace, so we will see in a few weeks which gender gets outnumbered in our family :) That will also put Elijah 17 months older than #3.

I asked one mom who had three babies back to back what she did when they were babies (in other words how did she survive), and she told me, very calmly, "I don't remember a thing..." I just had to laugh. I can't imagine how crazy it will be in the beginning, but another friend of mine said something very wise today who is thinking about having her fourth..."we can't think only short term when we are considering more children because busy seasons come and go. We have to think long term about what we want our families to look like and what kind of legacy we get to leave behind." It made me feel blessed that God has entrusted us with three children so quickly. It is easy to loose sight of the big picture while you have crying kiddos, a messy home, and a tired mama. But in this moment, right now, I am thankful...and sometimes God gives me glimpses in the middle of our busy life to the kind of people that are being built right before my eyes.

8 months

Our little Elijah is 8 months!! This picture was taking on his eighth month birthday, March 1st, and was proudly colored by Sister Grace. There are such a cute pair.

There is so much going on in our little boys life right now. Lets start with his first, yucky virus. Last week he recovered from a four day, high fever virus. We took him to the doctor twice where they tested for flu, ear infection, bladder infection and who knows what else. Since it was a virus, we just kept him on Motrin to help with his fever and let his immune system fight it out. It was so sad. He was so lethargic and just wanted to lay his head on our chest. His fever got up to 104 at one point which was so scary. He slept a lot, but after four days he began to recover. We were so glad and thankful. He is now completely back to normal and doing great! Take that you ugly virus!


Our little buddy is now crawling, standing up, and trying to get into everything in sight. Yikes! I just turned around for a minute yesterday and he had a big dust ball in his mouth. I didn't even realize it was on the floor, and I had just cleaned. Sigh. Well, at least, I have another helper, Grace, who tries to police what goes in Elijah's mouth. Sometimes, it is her toys she doesn't want him bothering with, but most of the time it is objects she knows are bad...crayons, paper, etc. She is growing into such a helpful little girl. I am so proud of them both.