Plans!

Dave bought our house plans today!! If you have ever built a house you know that it is a bit of an investment. It is becoming a reality! The two lots we are looking at are both in our current ward. (Julie S, I think you might be the only person from Price that reads my blog so that info is for you!) So much to do! I wish I could do more of the work. Dave can't sleep at night because his mind keeps racing with construction thoughts. Hopefully once the work actually starts he can put his mind to rest. He will probably be so exhausted from working then going to work on the house he will be asleep before his head hits the pillow.

House??

There are still about a million hurdles to jump but it looks like Dave will be building us a house this spring!! I still have to tell myself not to get my hopes up just in case one of the hurdles proves to be too much for us but I am getting pretty giddy in spite of myself. We have a floor plan picked out and a couple of lot possibilities. It will be kind of slow since Dave is going to do most of the work himself along with a friend in our ward but I am going to do my best to be patient. Yippee!!!

Christmas 2010

Since last year a big snow storm altered our plans for traveling for Christmas we decided to just plan on staying at home this year. It turned out to be a good choice because Zander had been sick the whole week before Christmas and was really down and out on Christmas Eve. Luckily that was the turning point and he felt pretty good for Christmas morning. It was kind of sad to not have other family around. It didn't really feel like it was much different than any other day. I made tons of good food and it went largely unappreciated by the kids. Over eating is just not the same without a bunch of family around I guess. :) We took it easy on Christmas Eve since Zander was not up to much. We did make cookies for Santa Claus and carried on the Oberholtzer tradition of Fondue for Christmas Eve dinner. We read the story of the nativity and used our nativity scene to act it out. Haylie had been waiting all season to do that so she was pretty excited. Then we opened up our new pajamas and got ready for Santa to come.

The kids got up at about 7 on Christmas morning. Haylie was way excited to see her dolphin Pillow Pet. I still can't figure out the craze with these things. As usual the kids got way too spoiled. I feel like I did too this year. I got a carpet cleaner from Dave. I know it sounds really romantic but it is what I asked for. He helps to clean the carpets which makes it a little more romantic! From my parents and Darin we got a Bosch Mixer with a couple of attachments and from Dave's parents we got a Food Saver vacuum sealer. Now I can cook and clean with the best of them! I have used each item several times already. One day we even used all three! Dave and I cleaned the carpet in the living room, I vacuum sealed some ground beef, and made some bread with the mixer!

Decorating Santa's cookies

"Would ya get that camera outta my face?"

A Pillow Pet!!!

Checking out the stocking

Haylie LOVED her gift from Uncle Darin. 20 new Littlest Pet Shop Pets complete with accessories.

Zander's gift from Great Gram Holzer...Tractors.

Working really hard at saying "Cheese"

Oh My!! What blew up in here??

Ballerina

One Tuesday in Early November I pulled up into our driveway from picking Haylie up from preschool. I got out of the car and looked across the yard and saw a small black cat walking up the neighbor's driveway. The minute it saw us it came right over. Of course, Haylie, being the animal lover that she is began petting it. The cat was frantically weaving in and out of our legs and going for the kids hands. I am not what you would call an animal lover but this one looked so pitiful I reached down and pet it, and felt how skinny it was. It hung around the rest of the day and when Dave came home for lunch and saw how skinny it was we decided to feed it (or her as we found out later.) Haylie spent the rest of that day outside with this poor little cat. We figured we had made ourselves a pet by feeding her but were still kind of hoping that she would go back home. As it got dark the cat was nowhere to be found but was on the porch first thing the next morning. She has been here ever since. Haylie named her Ballerina and the kids and Dave built a little cat box for her to sleep in and get out of the cold. She is a very sweet little cat, and puts up with all of Haylie's affections. She isn't allowed inside so she is a pretty low maintenance pet. She was certainly unexpected but it has sure made Haylie happy to have a pet besides a fish.

Only the newer looking plywood is the cat box. A few people who looked at this picture thought the whole thing was the box. We did not build her a mansion. The other part is a table that was there when we moved in.

She is a pretty young cat and is very playful. She got up on the seat to play with the tassles on the handlebars.

Haylie's 5th Birthday

Haylie turned 5 on December 1st. She chose to have zoo animal themed party with a few of her friends. Last year for her party I planned a bunch of party games and then was stressed out the entire time trying to get everyone to play them when they really just wanted to play in the toy room. I learned my lesson and kept it very simple this year; shortened the time, had one or two activities besides the present opening and cake, and every went great. One of gifts she got from us was a trip to Build-a-Bear Workshop. It was her first visit and she loved it! She ended up with a dog and named it Isabelle.
When the kids were babies I seemed to post more often about some of the milestones they have reached and what they like to do. I haven't done as good at doing that now that they are older but thought a birthday post was the perfect time to do it. Haylie continues to be a big girl, she always has been bigger than most kids her age. She is about as far from dainty as you can get. She doesn't care for dolls or princesses or barbies and hates wearing anything in her hair. She wishes people who make toys would realize that not all little girls like Disney Princesses. She is extremely curious about the world around her and asks about everything and expects a real answer, if I try to say I don't know then she will say, "well why do you think..." Haylie absolutely loves animals. I haven't posted about it yet but in November we had a stray kitten (not a tiny kitten but not full grown yet) adopt our family. We can't have pets in our apartment and Dave is somewhat allergic to cats so she is an outdoor cat. Haylie spends hours outside with Ballerina (Haylie chose the name) even if it is freezing. I will go out to check on her and see her holding the cat and telling her about how she came to be our pet. She has such a big heart! She is usually very patient with Zander and for her age is pretty good atthinking about others' feelings. I love this little girl so much!! Before she was born I imagined what kind of kid she would be and she is nothing like I imagined. I sure am glad though. The reality is much better! Happy Birthday Haylie! I love you with all my heart!

Haylie at Build-a-Bear with her dog Isabelle.

The monkey cupcakes

coloring animal masks

Opening Presents

Trying out the her new scooter.

Thanksgiving

Ok, I know this is the wrong holiday to post about on the day after Christmas but I am still playing catch up here. We spent this year's Thanksgiving at my parents house in Brigham City which is always a fantastic place to spend a holiday. All of my siblings except for Melanie and her family were there. It still made for a large crowd...16 people. That wasn't just for the dinner. We all stayed there together from Wednesday through Saturday. Luckily my parents house is like a bed and breakfast. It even has themed rooms to stay in! It is so much fun to get together! I am feeling extra sentimental about it because we just spent Christmas here in Price without any extended family and I felt a little lonely and wished we lived somewhere where family could come visit and not have to sleep out where Santa leaves his loot. Anyway, back to Thanksgiving. We spent the time playing games, talking, and inhaling goodies as fast as Grandma could whip them out. Our kids have a pass to The Treehouse Museum in Odgen which is an awesome place to take kids of any age if you get the chance. We took the opportunity to go on Friday and take my niece Afton while Ryan and Arika attended the temple (the Museum is right across the street from it). Everyone had a great time even Afton, who usually isn't too happy about being without her mom and dad. That night we had our traditional December 1st party. Don't look at your calendar--this was not on December 1st. Each year my Mom likes to give each of us a gift before Christmas, it used to be something Christmas-y that you could use throughout the season although it seem to have strayed from that a bit. The kids can always count on a chocolate advent calendar though. So she gives the gifts on December 1st or over Thanksgiving since most of us are usually together. We were planning on staying until Sunday but, as always, weather dictates our traveling and it decided that we would be going home on Saturday to avoid a possible storm. We did stop in Salt Lake at Build-a-bear Workshop for Haylie's birthday which is an actual reason to celebrate December 1st. More about that in Haylie's birthday post.


Rylan, Camden and Haylie ready for a feast.

L to R Zander, Arika, Ethan and Tayson

Darin--super excited for some mashed potatoes!


Haylie and Zander driving the fire truck in the Tree House Museum.

Girls' Weekend

In November I got to leave the kids at home with Dave and head to Salt Lake for a girls' weekend with my mom, Melanie, Alyson, and Arika. (my sisters and sister-in-law). We had so much fun together! On Friday evening we went the the Desert Star Dinner Theater and saw Collin Raye in concert. There were probably less than 200 people in the theater so it was pretty up close and personal. We stayed at Little America in downtown Salt Lake and then on Saturday my mom surprised us with Disney on Ice tickets. It was so neat. I think we might have been the only adults there without kids. It was fun though. We then did some shopping and ate at the Cheesecake Factory with Darin (my brother). On Sunday morning we went to Music and the Spoken Word. It was a Veteran's Day edition of it, and really fantastic. I have never been in the Tabernacle when something was going on so it was especially neat. I am so grateful for the wonderful women in my family. I am thankful that we all get along and can have so much fun together. Can't wait till next time, girls! Love ya!