Preschool Pics

I'm about to head out to pick the twins up from preschool, and I realized I never posted pics of their first day.  They are only going one day a week right now, but love it!  Their teacher is amazing she has quads, so I'm soaking up all the advice on multiples I can get. 
Last week, they worked on the letter "A," and Luke has told me multiple times he is ready to go back to school because he is really good at sitting cris-cross, apple sauce!  :)

 

Oh, the joys of taking pictures of twins!  It took us several tries, but we finally got a good one!

Frio River Fun

Yes we are still here.  I'm honestly not sure where the month of August went.  My goodness!
Towards the end of August we got to take a family trip to the Frio River with my parents & siblings.  We had such a great time playing in the river, roasting marshmallows, feeding deer, and just getting some good family time.  Here are some pics from our trip.

Fred the deer was bottle fed as a baby and loves people.  The twins got to pet and feed him.  He even tried to play with Luke, but was disappointed to find Luke didn't have horns to push back with.  Luke was also disappointed for the same reason!

 

All three of the boys loved the water!  The twins really enjoyed floating down the "rapids."  As you can see from the pictures above, they were pretty intense.  ;)

The big boys left the rapids to the little guys and instead found lots of great diving spots. 

 

 Our mini-crew on the river!

 

The entire Holder clan!  We had so much fun.  We'd love to do it again next year (hint, hint!) 

 

Nothing like ending your summer nights swinging on the front porch!

 

Hope you and your family has had a great summer.  For our clan, this was such a great relaxing way to end our summer. 
Mom & Dad, thanks again for putting all of this together.



I have a one year old!

Last Friday, Titus turned one.  Most days, the first word out of his mouth is "ball," so naturally we celebrated his birthday with a ball themed birthday party. 

Our sweet family found this birthday boy balls in every shape and size.  Needless to say he is in ball heaven right now!

At 1, Titus has walking down and can even kick a ball around the house like a little soccer player.  He says a handful of words like "ball," "bye-bye," "dada," "momma," and when he see food he says "mmmmm!"  He has a tremendous amount of joy and his smile is absolutely contagious.  He is currently almost 31 in tall, and weighs 24 lbs. and 3 oz. and there isn't a single ounce of him that is not fearfully and wonderfully made! 
We love you T and are looking forward to what the Lord has in store for you. 

My Soccer Prodigy

I've been trying to catch Titus dribbling a ball around the house for a month and I finally got it!
No kidding he's been kicking the ball around since 10 months.  Now, when he is helping to win the World Cup for team USA I have the video to prove it.  :)

I think my favorite part is his oh so dramatic exit.  Such a ham!

Beach Days

A couple of weeks ago we went down to Galveston to visit some good friends that had rented a beach house.  This was our first beach trip of the summer, and T's first trip ever. 
Now Titus loves water so I thought he would enjoy the beach, but I really underestimated how much he loved it!  The boy waddled as fast as his chunky little legs would go to the edge of the waves and then let out many squeals of sheer delight.  This routine never got old for him.

The twins are such explorers and hunters these days.  They had a great time hunting for shells and anxiously checking each one in hopes that there would be a crab inside. 

This is my absolute favorite picture from our afternoon.  This is such a perfect picture of this dynamic duo.  They are such inseperable buds.  :)

Hopefully we can get down to the beach a couple more times this summer.  My boys sure love it!

Road Trip (the rest of the story)

I think everyone's favorite part of our trip was the hike.  We searched long and hard for a somewhat kid friendly hike, but we were also hoping they would get to see snow. 
We headed up St. Mary's Glacier with the kids and help!  I'm so glad my sister, brother-in-law, and our friends were there to help.  The extra arms came in very handy during the SNOW!! 

Before

The Hike

The Top

We didn't stay long because a pretty big storm blew in with huge snow flakes, in JUNE!  We Texans were not quite ready for this, and the twins still tell me they did not like that snow falling on them.

This was definitely such a memorable part of our trip.  We loved seeing the creation that so richly declares the beauty and creativity of our God. 

Josh & Jennifer, thanks so much for allowing us to crash your home.  I'm sure you had no idea what you were getting yourselves into.  We are so grateful for your friendship.

Aaron & Randi, so glad you guys allowed us to tag along on your vacation.  The kids LOVE their Aunt Randi & Uncle Scruff and having you along made all the difference in the world.

Road Trip (part 1)

While the temperatures were inching ever closer to that three digit mark, the five of us packed down the "swagger wagon" and headed on a road trip to cooler weather in Denver to see some friends.  The kids were so excited because we were going on a really long trip and they knew they were going to get to watch a movie (or two)! 
The kids did great on our 20 hour trip. On the way up, we did break the drive up over two days which I think was a huge help. 
While in Denver, we took the kids to a butterfly & bug museum.  Can you tell we have all boys?!?!

The boys got to see inside the honey comb and watch the bees hard at work. 

The bees had a plastic tube that ran through the wall to the outside to get in and out of their honey comb.  This was definitely Luke's favorite part.  He studied those bees for a long time.

Levi and I got to hold a tarantula named Rosie.  We even got a sticker announcing our great feat after we were done .  Levi was so proud of himself for being such a brave guy!



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Inside the butterfly pyramid there were thousands of butterflies.  They would even land on you if you were still long enough. 

The kids loved the museum and really learned a lot.  Since we have gotten back, I'm pretty sure we have checked out every book on bugs from our library.  I'm sure I'll have an entomologist on my hands out of one of these three. 
I'll post more about our trip soon!