Matthew's 1st Birthday

So I'm more than a little late on this... sorry!  We celebrated our little guy's first birthday on May 8th with a little get together in the backyard.  Most of his favorite people were there, though we were missing a few crucial folks!  All for good reason though.  All in all it was a fun night, I'm pretty sure Ella had more fun than B because it was mostly her friends who were there.  Always the hostest, she made sure to introduce everyone because not all the kids knew each other.  What a doll!

Sweet Matthew didn't even get to stay up for the whole thing but he did enjoy being carried around and fussed over while he was awake!

This is Neala, hopefully Matthew's future girlfriend.  Cutest ever!!

We had to pull out the roller coaster for the kiddoes to play on.  It was a hit!!  And we were so happy that the Best family could come up from Charlotte and celebrate with us.

Just a sip before the cake?

Matthew's personal, dairy-free, cake.  For some reason he and Ella have serious issues with things on their hands.  Just like Mommy!

Baity, Riley, and Ella tearing into the favor buckets.  Loving the bubbles!

Yay for presents!  This is one of B's faves, thanks Uncle Nate!

Sweet sister reading birthday books to her brother.

Happy Birthday, Big Guy!  We love you and can't wait to watch you grow into a young man.

Only a two year old...

While trying to brush my teeth the other morning I had to ask Ella several time to leave poor Matthew alone.  For some reason she had picked up a washcloth and kept wrapping it around his neck.  For the life of me I could not figure out why she was trying to strangle the little brother that she adores.  Yesterday I made sure every washcloth and towel was out of her reach when I got into the shower.  As soon as I got out she started asking me where the washcloth was and I explained to her that I had put it away.  What was her response to that?  Not what you might think... unless you're thinking, "Oh no!  Now B can't be a super hero!"  It hit me like a ton of bricks, she was trying to tie the cloth around his neck to make a cape.  I swear, that girl is too smart for me sometimes.

Farewell, Deacon

Sadly on Wednesday morning my parents had to part with our family dog.  Sweet, sweet Deacon was the center of the Philpott household for over 15 years and loved every second of it.  Always happy to see any one of us and willing to stop for a belly rub at the drop of a hat he will truly be missed.  Even as my children slowly began to invade his territory in the house, he'd just look at them and roll his eyes as if to say, "oh geez, not you again!"  Never once did he get angry with Ella as she followed him from room to room, annoyed?  Sure.  But he never barked or snapped at her wihtout good reason- like her pulling on his tail.  I'm sorry to lose him, I'm sorry that Mom won't have a valid excuse to stop at McDonalds for a cheeseburger now, but most of all I'm sorry that Ella and Matthew won't grow to know him and love him as the rest of us had the pleasure of doing. 

Love you much, Deacon.  I'm certain that even if not all dogs go to Heaven you're watching up from up there now.

Happy Easter!

Wow, what an Easter weekend the Holcomb family had. Ella and Matthew started the egg hunting at Mimi and Teddy's house Thursday afternoon. Poor kids, the pollen is in full effect here so both of them were sniffling and sneezing but Ella put up with it for the candy. She just kept yelling, "uh-oh... My need tissue!" she'd wipe her nose and get right back to the hunting.

After a long day of hunting eggs and eating candy what does everyone need?  Why, a beverage on the back deck of course!  Ella loves to "cheers!" things now... her juice boxes, her pizza, anything.  Daddy was happy to oblige!  He was so proud... after stating that she needed a "yellow juice box" she went to the fridge in the garage to get it herself and proceeded to yell into the house, "Daddy, you want a beer?"  So glad we're teaching her the important things in life.

Friday Ella woke up begging to go to Nana and Pops' house.  They were here for Easter and Nana's spring break.  So, since Ella really runs things around her, we all piled into the car and headed to Sophia.  What was in store?  More egg hunting of course.  And a little golf for Matthew.

Ella has totally caught onto the fact that there should be candy in the eggs.  If at any time she picked one up that was empty she'd promptly say, "This one B's" and take it to him.  After a while they all were empty and we had to explain to her that she could nat have anymore candy till after she ate her dinner.  This was the reaction we got...

Love the drama this girl brings into our lives!

Saturday brough more time at Nana and Pops, to celebrate Uncle Aaron's birthday.  It was a day for work around the Holcomb place so the boys were more than happy to bring out the tractor.  Ella, however, was not exactly thrilled by the idea.

Sunday morning the Easter Bunny finally made it to our house...

(Basket liners sewn by Nana, embroidered by Mommy)

We had yet another egg hunt for Ella in the backyard. 

And the Easter Bunny hid her basket too... didn't take her long to find it!

Though the only thing she wanted out of it was her plastic Princess Tiana tiara and wand.

But we did have to watch her new "Tinkerbell" and "Princess and the Frog" movies that night.

Matthew was pretty excited about the edible easter grass in his basket!

We had a nice brunch at the Cardinal, along with yet another egg hunt.  By this point Ella was a seasoned pro but this one threw her for a loop... for some reason they didn't use eggs??  What is that about?  They pretty much just threw candy on the ground.  All the little kids were running past it, looking for the colored eggs.  Well, duh!  Several of us parents had to explain to just pick up the candy off the ground. 

And what Easter weekend would be complete without and Easter Bunny siting?  As you can tell from this pic the Holcomb kids are not fans of the larger than life animals...

worst blogger EVER!!

That would be me. Yes, I am aware that it has been almost 2 years since I've put anything worth reading on here (other than the picture of sweet B) and you have my apologies! (Especially you, Rebecca! Hopefully you'll see this and know that all is not lost on me)

Slowly but surely we're getting into a routine here and after about 9 months of Matthew not sleeping and crying every second of everyday we seem to have turned a corner... discovering a milk allergy and making him scream himself to sleep 3 times a day for a week changed our world drastically! So now, all is well in the Holcomb household.

Ella is a wonderful big sister, she loves Matthew (whom she still calls B- in fact, we all do most of the time) to pieces and is a great helper. She is a little chatter box, just like her mommy. She has to narrate everything she does during the day and everything Matthew does too.

Matthew, almost 11 months old now, started crawling a few weeks ago and graduated out of his physical therapy routine. Yea B! Ella's having a few issues with the fact that he can now get to her toys but she's getting used to it. Lately though I hear a lot of, "Mommy, take B somewhere else."



We managed to get out of the house sans Matthew last night to take Ella to Raleigh for a Carolina Hurricanes hockey game. She loved it! Every goal they missed (which, unfortunately was a lot) she yell, "oh man! missed it!" and shake her head. Hysterical!



Earlier this year, in January, Bryan had some work to do in Orlando so Ella and I tagged along. While Matthew got some QT with Mimi & Teddy for a weekend in Winston. Ella was flabbergasted to see that Cinderella's castle actually is a real place. We were not allowed to get close to any of the characters because Miss Personality is petrified of them, but she was in awe of Disney World as a whole and I am so excited to take Matthew in a few years. Pretty sure it will be a completely different experience but equally as fantastic!





Now, with promises (for real this time!) to return soon I'll leave you with 2 picture of Matthew to show you just how far our sweet 4lb baby boy has come in the last 11 months...

We're still here... and now there are 4 of us!

Matthew Whittenton Holcomb was born on May 5 at 1:46PM. A whopping 4 lbs and 17 inches he was almost 4 weeks early. Many reasons I haven't blogged in so long... a lot because Ella won't leave me alone long enough to get on a computer and be productive, but mostly because we had a bit of a crazy pregnancy and I wasn't really into blogging because of it. I won't get into details now as most of you reading this have been kept up to date. But it's all good now that Matthew is here with us, and perhaps in a later post I'll get into it. But for now just enjoy this little guys precious face!

You can see more at Alisha's blog... www.alishaschwanke.blogspot.com

Ella is excited about her little brother, whom she calls "bee," her word for baby. Soon I'll be back ehre regularly and will update with photos and stories about all her latest antics.

Happy Birthday, Ella!

It is so crazy to think about Ella being a year old! The past 12 months have absolutely flown by and watching her grow and figure out the world around her has been a wonderful experience for Bryan and I.

Day to day with Ella is a blast. She LOVES "Jack's Big Music Show" on Noggin, I think it's her favorite. And Bryan discovered that the movie Hairspray will stop her in her tracks. I think it's all the music and the movement... she's also a bit obsessed with Beyonce's video for "Single Ladies." We have lots playdates with our friends and Ella's such a social butterfly. She has never met a stranger and has no problem waving and talking to people she's never seen before, in the grocery store, at the ball games, wherever we happen to be. She now says "hi" when she waves but I don't think she knows what it means, just thatwe say it to her when we see her. So she's just a little copycat. She's really good at waving good bye. Every night when Bryan gets home from work he'll pick her up to say hello and she immediately starts waving bye to me. Pretty much like, "see ya later lady, the fun guy's here now." And she'll get really upset if Bryan doesn't take her with him to change. I think at the end of the day she's had enough of my face and is ready for a change of scenery.

I'm always amazed at how her mind works, these days if you ask her where her hat is she'll pat her head and always points up when asked where the light is. You can say, "where's your blankie?" and she will go find it (provided it's a reasonable task) and bring it to you, also we can say "take it to Daddy/Mommy" and whatever she's holding will be given to the appropriate person. She's a genius right? Ha!

Her party today was a smashing succes, with a speedbump in the middle. We had a good showing of all her little girlfriends and our families with a cake from Dewey's, of course. She didn't do too much damage to her cake though. Ella is really weird about textures, she really doesn't like to pick anything up and put it in her mouth unless it's hard, like a cookie or a cracker. So the mushy icing was not really a big hit for her. Once she tasted it, she liked it, but she was just pinching off tiny bits with her thumb and forefinger. So dainty! We were kind of hoping for the big messy display of most first birthdays but our little princess had a different plan for the day. I have lots of pictures from the day and will post them later this week for you to enjoy.

Happy birthday pretty girl, mommy and daddy love you!