11.20.10

I was doing the dishes and looked down and saw Holden took out all the snacks out of the bag and sorted them into separate categories. I thought it was pretty cute!

11.19.10

Holden thought it would be fun to put my lipgloss on his eyes like mascara. Whenever I put mascara on around him, he always wants to touch my eyes, hes fascinated by it. So he thought he would give it a try! We thought we wiped his eyes clean, but when we went out to get ice cream we realized it looked like he had a black eye, whoops!

11.18.10

Nina took our family pictures today! She did such a great job, we are so happy with them. Holden was so good too, so when we got home he was allowed to watch Curious George with his screwdriver!

11.17.10

Holden's "fishy" face
Playing around in his bedroom, both boys were "cheesing" hard!

11.16.10

Coloring a Thanksgiving card for Grandma and Grandpa

Grateful for Family

I think Kurt and I are the luckiest people in the world with the love and support we are given by our family. My parents, Kurt's parents, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces, nephews, and grandparents. We were talking the other day in the car and were just amazed at how much our family loves us. We were feeling sad for homeless people and knew that our families would never let anything like that happen to us, our support system is so strong. We are surrounded by incredible examples, people that I'm proud to say are family.

I'm thankful for my parents who have continually loved me despite my crazy youth where I know I didn't treat them the best! I'm thankful I know I can call them with whatever problem I have and they will give me advice and prayers and love. I know I keep coming back to this summer and the hardships we faced, but I knew every single one of my aunts, uncles, brothers, sisters, or cousins were praying and thinking about Kurt and I. I felt the love and support from across the country. I'm thankful for my brothers and sisters and in-laws...we all have so much fun together when we can get together. It's hard being in Utah while most are on the East coast and a sister on the west coast. I wish I could just hop over to my sisters house for dinner or stop in at my brothers house just to say hi. But the times when we are together, we talk and laugh and just have a great time.

I'm thankful for Kurt's family. It's hard for me to even write about Kurt's family because I really feel like we have grown together so much, but have also lost so much. But I know that I'm grateful for the love, support, and togetherness we all have. I'm grateful for the time we are able to spend together and the fun we have. It's crazy times when all the Youngberg's get together, but I wouldn't want it any other way. I'm grateful for each and every one of Kurt's brothers and sisters and in-laws. They each bring their own unique and beautiful component to our family.

So thank you to all our family, thank you for loving us no matter what. Thank you for everything you do for us, I don't feel like I can say thank you enough.

11.15.10

When Kurt got home from school we decided to take Jariki to the dog park. I think she has been feeling neglected lately, so she needed some time to run around and play. Holden also loved playing at the playground next to the dog park!

As we were trying to get Holden in the car he would run away from us and then try to shoot us with the gun. I love how boys have this gun fighting in their blood.
Walking around the dog park
On the teeter totter with Dad
Going down the slide by himself..I usually go with him but we (I) was being brave and let him go down on his own

11.14.10

Our dryer broke. Here are the 4 loads of laundry I had to dry at Eric and Nina's. Thanks again guys!

11.13.10

Holden loves to "color" on our calender dry erase board. I love the way he lays on the ground to color

Grateful for Holden

I'm grateful for Holden and his loving personality. If he's mean to you or playing around and hurts you, he will immediately give you a kiss. He loves to give hugs and kisses, he even loves to kiss Jariki, or your feet, or your leg.

I'm grateful for the patience Holden has made me learn. There are times I could rip my hair out, but I have learned to be calm and figure out his needs before I blow up.

I'm grateful for Holden's health. He may be a little on the small side (1% for his age) but he is a healthy little guy. He loves to run, jump, sumersault, play in the snow, play in the water, etc.

I'm grateful for Holden. I'm grateful he came into our family of 2, he may have been a complete surprise but he has been the best surprise I could ever ask for. He brings a smile to our face hundreds of times a day. Ex: When he walks around the house saying Nana, Bapa, Ste (he's a little excited to see his grandparents and his crazy Uncle Steven). When he wakes up in the morning and I say" Curious George is on," he squeals with excitement, runs to the family room, sits on the couch and waits until I turn it on. When he gives his dad a HUGE kiss through the phone on the weekends. I'm grateful for all of these times when I can experience immense happiness just because of my little 20lb guy.

I'm grateful I can stay at home with Holden. Money may be more than super tight these days but we are willing to sacrifice so I can stay at home. I love that I'm the one to teach him and play with him and feed him all day.

So thank you Holden for being YOU! I love you more than you could possibly understand!

Grateful for Kurt

I'm grateful for Kurt who worked 40 hours this weekend, got home at midnight last night, and worked on homework until 1:45am and got up at 7:30am for school. He works so hard for this family I feel like I will never know how to re pay him for it all. He usually comes home from school and plays and plays with Holden while I get dinner ready. Gets Holden ready and in bed, and goes back to school work. I don't want this to sound like I'm complaining, I just wanted to express his dedication to family, school, and work. You have been through so much this summer, but you continue to power on daily. You are an inspiration to me and I know Holden will grow up to respect and try to be like you. So Kurt, a million trillion thank you's for everything you do for our family. We love you

I'm trying do a grateful post everyday this week!

11.12.10

We had a lot of fun raking the bazillion leaves in our front yard today. Holden loved to grab a handful of leaves and throw them in the trash can.



Stomping the leaves in the can
Holden was major cheesing it after his nap. I love this handsome boy.

11.11.10

Painting inside on a cold and dreary day outside.

11.10.10

Starting to floss at a young age

11.9.10

Just trying to be like dad

11.8.10

I made delicious potstickers on Monday. I cried the entire time making them. You are probably saying to yourself "Huh why, that is silly?" The last time I made these potstickers was when Brent was staying at our house back in March (I think). We had an assembly line going, I would fill the potstickers and Kurt and Brent would fold them up. We laughed and laughed because it made so many and they were being such good sports the whole time. And then after I cooked them, we ate all of them..yep the 3 of us ate all the 40 potstickers. I'm so happy I have that memory to keep with me forever. And it sounds lame I cried while making them this time, but I kept thinking I will never have memories with Brent.

11.7.10

The kiddies brushing their teeth

11.6.10

Eric and Nina went to St. George so Nina could run a 1/2 marathon. I offered to watch the 4 kids and I had Holden..yep thats right I watched 5 kids all by myself. It was pretty hard and I love my nieces and nephews, but it was tough...very tough. I have a LOT of respect for what Nina does all day everyday, she is an amazing mom. She has so much patience and love.

We played outside a lot, had a leaf leaf fight, and watched a movie and popped popcorn! I think we had a fun time!

Evy trying to pull Holden. They played so cute the whole weekend.
Playing basketball
Abby is growing up so fast and she is so good with Holden. She was a huge helper, she cleaned the counters, helped me make vanilla pudding, played with the kids, helped Evy get ready for church, etc.

Will started pulling the kids around in the wagon and pretended like it was a train. He made up stops and they all had a lot of fun being pulled around.

11.5.10

Look at this guy we found in the driveway. Holden was a little freaked out by him, not sure why considering the praying mantis didn't move a muscle. But I thought he was pretty cool

11.4.10

Well I had a great idea to get Holden a play toy set with a pretend screwdriver, hammer...the whole deal! I thought he wouldn't know they were pretend and use them instead of asking every 5 min for a real screwdriver. Boy was I wrong. He had a lot of fun playing with his tool set, but it wasn't the real thing and he knew it right away. After he was done playing for a few minutes he walked right over to another toy, flipped it over, and started begging for a real screwdriver....oh well at least I tried!