Newport News.

With the arrival of Spring - I've already set my sights on Summer.

I have the following beach sessions available - Newport Beach, CA - July 2010

July 10th
July 12th
July 13th
July 14th

Please email me: m_holdsworth1@yahoo.com for additional information. Thanks!

Ahhhh...can't wait!!

Saw this one and had to add it...Indy, 2 years ago (age 7) my sunbleached boy.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!SPRING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dude. It is an understatement to say that the Holdsworth home looks forward to spring like nothing else...

1. less than a month from tax deadline

2. Spring training

3. Picnics & parks

4. Summer comes after spring :)

We are on the tail end of spring break. We survived & everyone did great. Indy took the weekend in Flagstaff with Tia who brought him down and kicked it with us (and cleaned like a banshee as usual :) We all enjoyed our favorite Irish meal and decorated (in a rather disgusting fashion-who needs frosting when straight food coloring can be used???) green cupcakes. Anyone who walked through the door was subject to a lot of pinching if they were not wearing green. Eiley pulled the ol' green underwear trick :) We didn't catch a leprechaun but maybe next year - we're gonna try toast.

We headed down to Phoenix and spent the night & soaked up tons and tons of sun - good times with good friends.


I took some pics of Ella (9 MONTHS! Eating everything in her path and starting to hard core army crawl) in my cute little green pot. McLaren helped then went and cleverly dished himself a hearty bowl of ice cream while I was occupied :)

Here's to a HAPPY SPRING!!!!

Fun. Funky. Family Photography {Prescott, AZ}

We beat the storm. It was rolling in just as we were finishing - I only make a note of this because we had to cancel the previous week due to snow :) then sunny during the week...then another storm rolls in on the weekend. We had a great time - these guys were so comfortable during the session and had no problem making each other laugh - which makes my job very easy! (**AND they have secret family handshakes which I love - 'cause my kids have family handshakes that must be completed before their dad leaves for work --the one featured here is the "fresh prince" - yes...it has a name :)

Prescott Arizona Family Photography

Fun Family Photography AZ

Happy Birthday - Big Guy.

We've had a week of non-stop celebration here. I took him to play at Dave & Busters on Friday and he loved every minute of it...

We sure are thankful for all that he does for this little family. The kids prayers include the same line day in and day out "thankful for dad to go work and mom to cook the food"(such traditional roles eh? :) I tried not to include anything about taxes in this post - however it's hard to have a tax season birthday when you're a taxman (we made sure none of our kids shared this fate :) We don't see him much lately but we know we're on the downhill slide - and grateful for a reason to be festive and party in the midst of the heavy tax/snow season! AND he received the best birthday gift ever...1.5 weeks HEADACHE FREE (for the first time in over 15 years...although he was tempted just to pop some excedrin for the birthday fun of it!) Yea for modern medicine miracles!

Happy Birthday!

Best Oatmeal Ever.

So it's freezing rain outside and we're well into the month of March....however, I have to say that I was excited for the lame weather so that I could try out this delicious oatmeal. Everyone knows that you have to have crappy weather to eat oatmeal (or maybe that's what kids growing up in Yuma are taught to believe - we begged for rain - there's just something seriously wrong with eating oatmeal and drinking hot chocolate when you have to leave the door open so you can hope for a little "chill" in the morning)

Anyway...loved this oatmeal.
serves 6

2 egg, beaten
3-1/2 cups milk
*1 cup packed brown sugar
2 cups rolled oats
*1/4 cup butter

Mix everything but the butter in a pot over medium heat and cook till thick. Some reviewers said they used only 1/2 c. brown sugar and 2T butter and it was good...so being the killjoy that I am...I reduced to those amounts and threw in a whole chopped apple...delicious and the kids ate it...Finally a way to tackle those food storage oats without having to swim in cookies (not that my husband would mind...he's getting oatmeal scotchies for his birthday ;)

Laina Land.

Please - take my hand and count to 1...2....3! poof! you've just entered into "Laina Land". (At least that's how she always takes us...anyone is welcome) This land was patterned after her cousin Ellies'...who likes to visit...you guessed it..."Ellie Land"! Magical things happen there (and their huge massive messes happen here - strange...)

Laina has a wonderful imagination and can coax her brothers into doing all sorts of things in Laina Land - however the black ninja hat was all McLaren's idea (and yes...I cried so hard from laughing when I had to tie it on...I wish I had a better picture of him in the hat - eating pretzels...but I was laughing too hard and he kept looking at me strangely to figure out why I was laughing behind the camera.)

When Laina isn't in Laina Land you can find her (and hear her) belting out "You Belong to Me" (ala taylor swift) at the top of her lungs.

Friday is here...but I like Thursdays better.

Don't get me wrong...Friday's are nice...but they usually have craziness attached to them (I'm taking Matt to Dave & Busters tonight - should be fun...and crazy :)


I decided yesterday...that Thursdays are my favorite day. I feel like its the first day during the week that I actually get to take a breath. Now this Thursday was good - but the little 'El is still suffering from double ear infections that could care less if antibiotics were being thrown at them or not...they are determined to stay. This equals about a month solid of "newborn" nights (i.e. 2 feedings) but they also come with NO naps during the day...and NO happy baby or fun playtime on the floor...she's back to being strapped to me in order to get dinner done and the house picked up...I was about to text my pediactrician - what you can't text yours?? :) when I decided to give it one more morning and - SHE slept for a whole hour and a half - and I made it through half of this post.


BOWLING


Last month Indy & Laina's school classes (weird that it worked out that way, but apparently there are sisters in the classes who have a go-getter mom) went to the bowling alley. They had a good time. Matt and I also had to bowl last week for Big Brothers Big Sisters - no pictures of that...thankfully.

It's PINEWOOD DERBY time! (Alternate title: How to Guide: For really SLOW dysfunctional cars)

I asked them for a thumbs up...they thought they were soooo funny...
Shown here - Matt even tried running the poor thing backwards...

I can't tell you how glad I am that this is over. This was our first pinewood derby and Matt and Indy (and his mom on the sidelines :) learned a lot. They started 3 weeks before the race...sketching...dremmeling...and painting...that's where the wheels (figuratively speaking) came off...then sanding and painting...sanding and painting...then a last minute decision to spray lacquer on enamel was the car's ultimate downfall. After that the super glue on the axle and overstuffed graphite in the wheels brought the car to a screeching halt. But Indy was a good sport...even though he lost EVERY SINGLE RACE. That's right INDY was 0-4. Matt exclaimed "how can you have a kid named Indy (&McLaren) and go 0 for 4 at the pinewood derby????!!!" Oh well...next year I'm sure that they will start a month earlier and really work on the mechanics -yeah...its the mechanics they need to focus on!

Ella - 8(.5) months old & THE WORLD'S BEST BABYSITTER:

*Not crawling :)

*Eats like she may never see food again

*Suffering from lack of sleep due to lame ear infections

*Waved one (1) time.

*Will sit and eat at the table for an hour (the best babysitter in the world! A highchair and a leftover pizza crust :)