I feel really bad for letting this blog go a bit. Between my brother and family moving here and the holidays fast approaching, I’ve been very busy. But that’s not a good enough excuse. So I’ll try to catch everyone up.

My brother and his family moved all the way out here from Louisiana to hang out with us in the desert. To say it’s been awesome to have them here is an understatement. We all get along so well together. Josh and Andy can chat all day about sports and games. Brandi and I are both artistic, love photography and are mothers to small children so we have a ton in common. Caleb absolutely loves his big cousin Krynn and follows here around wherever she goes. He also loves to take care of his baby cousin Cassie. Here’s a video of him feeding her:

This Holloween was the first we actually took Caleb Trick-or-treating. He actually loved it and was a pro by the end of the night. We dressed him up as a dinosaur and went out with Josh, Brandi and the kids as well as Emily and Ryan, Amanda and Kaiden. The big group made the night great.

As you can see from the first video, my mom paid a visit to her children and grand babies. Since Josh and fam were down here as well, it was like two vacations in one for her. We actually even got my oldest brother to fly down here for a few days for a Liebmann family reunion/Thanksgiving extravaganza. It was wonderful to hang out with everyone again and have Caleb meet his Uncle Jesse.

We spent our Holloway thanksgiving up in beautiful (and seasonably cool) Prescott with various cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents. Our hosts live on a farm surrounded by golden fields. The kids had a blast chasing the chickens and jumping on the trampoline. Here are a few shots from the day:

Due to the holiday season, my photography has been super busy. I always love meeting new families and capturing that moment in their lives. You can check out some of the sessions on my photography blog. The link is in the lower right hand corner of this page.

I’m writing this entry on the eve of Caleb’s second birthday. I can’t believe my little baby is already two years old, running (and jumping) around, talking up a storm (even if we really can’t understand every word), making friends, and maturing into a sweet-spirited little boy. I am so proud of the person he is becoming. Even though I’m catching glimpses of the impending terrible two’s, the good definitely outweighs the bad. He is so so so sweet to his family and others, he hardly ever fights back and would rather have other children play with his things, than cause an argument. He laughs often and hardily, thoroughly enjoying playtime. He can count up to 12 by memory and knows his numbers up to 20. He knows all of his letters, several shapes, and all of the basic colors. Independence is something he’s beginning to feel more comfortable with and will often run off to play with his friends rather than stand by my side. He loves to cuddle, especially if we’re watching his favorite show, “Good Eats” on Food Network. Speaking of cooking, he has this new habit of sneaking off with my cooking utensils, pots and pans to use them in his play kitchen. Tonight, I actually let him stand on his little step stool beside me to “help” me cook. He was so diligent and stayed in the kitchen the entire time, throwing things away, and collecting requested ingredients. He loves to do things on his own, especially during his daily routines. For example, before bedtime he turns off all the lights in his room, turns on his sound machine, lullabies, and nightlight and climbs into his own crib, with a little help. He’s a great sleeper and will sleep 12+ hours at night and then quietly play in the morning until we wake up. He has also given me the new nickname of “Apple Mommy” and thinks it’s hilarious whenever he says it. His stats are weight: 25.4 lbs (19%), and height: 33.75″ (33%)

And now for the most exciting development in the Holloway family: Caleb is going to be a big brother! I am about five weeks pregnant and due mid-August. We found this out about a week before Caleb’s birthday party so we decided to reveal it to everyone then. It was so hard keeping this news a secret for an entire week but the pay off was definitely worth it. And for you lovely Holloblog readers, here’s a video of the big reveal:

We are so excited for this new little arrival as well as is Caleb. I know he’ll make a wonderful and nurturing big brother and our family will become more rich and full of fun. And now that I actually have a good reason to blog, I may just return to the trusty old Holloblog and update a little more often

It’s a problem in many homes - parents buy roomfuls of toys only to have their kids play with household items that were never intended to be toys. Caleb loves stealing my kitchen tools and hoarding them in his own play kitchen. He also loves taking the cereal boxes out from the cabinet and pouring the contents into his own bowls, then proceeding to throw the boxes into the recycle bin (at least he’s being green…) In this video you can see his new toy invention.

It’s been a little quiet on the blog front but believe me, It has been crazy here. First, and probably the best news: my brother Josh and his family moved here from Louisiana!

The series of events that fell into place to get them here is nothing short of incredible. They already had their house up for sale, and were questioning whether they wanted to stay in LA or move to another place entirely. They talked to us a little and decided they really wanted to move here in order to be close to family. But that couldn’t happen unless my brother could get a job out here. He looked online and found one job opening for his company in the entire state. And the city for this one job position? The same one where we live. Now the next obstacle was to get accepted for this position. This had to be done within a short time frame because their house in Louisiana was closing in a few days. Josh got on the phone interview with the AZ guys and a few days later got back on with them again to find out he got the job! A few days later, they traversed 1,300 miles across the southern US and arrived on our doorstep. Finding a house was the easy part, and three days later, they found a beautiful new house. Things couldn’t have worked out more perfectly. Now Caleb has two cousins to hang out with. He loves following his older cousin Krynn around and playing with her. The second she walks in the door, the two of them go off into the family room and we never see them again. They love playing together. All of us get along so well and have so much in common. I’m so thankful to have some of my own family here (even though my in-law family is awesome enough).

The two cuties, Krynn and Cassie, reading in our family room.

Second: Andy no longer needs glasses! He had LASIK done this morning. It was such an intense experience. I know because I got to watch! Yes, I’m one of those wierdos who love watching surgery programs on The Discovery Channel. When the assistant asked me if I wanted to come back and view the surgery got giddy I was so excited. From where I was sitting, this is what I could see:

Andy is in there somewhere behind the two doctors. That big silver TV screen is where my husband’s eye was displayed, magnified 100 times it’s original size and being poked and prodded will all sorts of scary surgical tools. I could actually see his cornea being lifted off his eye and folded back. It was awesome! 10 minutes after entering that room, he walked out with perfect vision. He’s going to have to take it easy for a few days and let his eyes heal, but he will (hopefully) never have to wear glasses again. It’s a good thing I’m okay with wearing my contacts because I could never go through that procedure without having some sort of embarrassing nervous breakdown halfway through. I’m so proud that he did it and am excited to see him wake up tomorrow and see perfectly without any aid.

Anyways, those are some of the most recent happenings going on in our house. Caleb is doing great; he actually cut his first two year old molar this past week (unbeknownst to myself…). He has a new fascination with letters and will actively search for them and sound them out (not always correctly). His favorite letter is “O”. Point to any letter, and he’ll most likely label it as an “ooooowwwweeee” He’s got a good start though, and he can say E, A, T, D, C, and N among others, even if he’s not always correct. I can no longer just read him a story, I have to trail my finger across the word and spell it out followed by a correct pronunciation of the word. If I fail to do this, he will grab my finger and make it drag across the word until I correct my wrongdoing. I often catch him reading whatever material he can get ahold of and start spelling out the words himself: “aye, eee, ah, ooo, oh, eye, oooh….” Yes, they’re mostly vowels; that’s his thing.

And because I can’t leave this post without a pic of the little man, here’s one from a few weeks back when our lawn turned into a prairie:

Being a photographer’s child can result in two ways. 1) they hate the camera and run away screaming every time it appears, or 2) they are fascinated by it and want to take their own pictures. Fortunately, Caleb turns out to be the latter. He loves taking the lens cap off my “work camera” but that’s as far as my trust goes. I passed down to him my old point and shoot, but he quickly jammed the lens. Now he has his eyes on my new little camera and loves sneaking into my purse to find it. I let him have a little supervised play time with it at Grandma and Grandpa’s house. Everyone in the room was astounded by how much he knew about cameras until I let him have full reign with it. I think I might have a future assistant in a few years. For the record, I never tell people to “say cheese” so I have no idea where he got that from.

And here are some examples of his fine artistry:

This was when he started taking pictures of himself. Narcissism at its finest….

We’re at the wonderful stage where Caleb discovers a new word everyday. He still talks in his own language most of the time, but his english is getting a little more coherent.

He’s also at the stage where Daddy is his superhero. This child hangs on every word, expression, and movement that comes from his father. He imitates everything he does, and if Andy makes any sign that he’s displeased, Caleb bursts into tears. As soon as Daddy steps in the door, Caleb is off showing him what he did that day. Recently he’s been very good at going “poo poo in the potty”. More times than not he’s gone. At first I’ve had to catch him mid-push and rush him to the bathroom, but now he’s coming to tell me he needs to go. His reward? A call to Daddy to exclaim his great accomplishment. This child LOVES his daddy. So this video seems fitting to show just how much they both adore eachother.

Caleb also got a Guitar of his own the other day. He loves strumming away at it. Since I don’t show many pictures on here (I just horde them all on Facebook) Here are a few of him and his new “gah-gah”:

Here’s a little video of us drilling Caleb on some words.

Here’s the Holloway Band rehearsing for their next gig:

I’m a part of a playgroup here in the Valley. It’s a wonderful opportunity to meet other moms and to form friendships among our kids. Since we joined about a year ago, Caleb has thrived. He loves all of the great activities and has already made a few little friends. I honestly don’t know what I would do without this great group of people… probably just be really bored all the time… and I pretty much go crazy when I’m bored….not a good thing….

But I digress.

With the help of my friend Brad the Fireman, I set up a tour with one of the Peoria fire stations for a playdate. Even though Caleb is a little too young to fully grasp the awesomeness that is a fire engine, he still had a blast. And the older kids loved romping in and out of the three enormous fire trucks. I also think the staff at the firehouse had just as much fun as the kids. Who does’t like to show off their 1.5 million dollar toys?

One of those big expensive toys.

All of the mommies and their kiddies. (btw, this is about 1/10th of the whole playgroup)

The staff and the kiddies. Caleb is in the upper left being held by Brad.

Me and a tired little boy who refused to wear the cool fireman hat.

Driving the firetruck!

On another note, I finally broke down and bought a little point and shoot camera. Caleb’s childhood just wouldn’t be the same without the slew of average quality pictures. So be prepared for a lot more flashy, amateur shots, because I am never taking this baby off of auto.

This morning, Caleb and I went with our friends Nikki and James to the Children’s Museum of Phoenix. It’s a three story museum located in a renovated school right in the middle of Downtown. It was amazing and full of creative exhibits. What’s even neater is that everything used to create this place was derived from recycled materials. Definitely worth a look for all you local folks. I thought about bringing my beast of a camera but decided against it knowing that if it was stolen, I would have a bunch of unhappy clients for the next few weeks. So I opted for my trusty iPhone instead.

And here’s a cute video of Caleb pushing his little buddy James around in a cart.

It’s actually been a few weeks since it was painted, but here’s a picture of our new paint job! I was dead set against anything brown or tan as living in AZ, you see enough of it. My desperate plea for a splash of color was granted. Now we have a fresh new blue house. I am so happy!

Now we just need some greenery in our red rock yard….

After  three months of sawdust, noise and plastic tarps, we’ve finally reached a goal. The interior is finished! Mostly, anyways. there are a few minor items like doorknobs and paint touch-ups, but it feels so good to finally remove the child\doggy barricades and let everyone roam free in our fresh new family room and office. We’ve spent the entire day in the family room and it has been awesome. It came out exactly how I wanted it: bright and roomy. Now Caleb can pull out every one of his toys and still have room to run around without tripping over anything. We pulled out the hardly-used chaise from our bedroom and put it in the corner for a cozy reading nook. The huge closet does a wonderful job storing everything we could possibly need. Here are a few before and afters for some good shock value:

Before, nasty messy garage:

After, sweet tranquility:

Before, a plain old garage door:

After, gorgeous archway:

Before, cramped and cluttered:

After, nice and spacious:

There’s plenty of space to spin around…:

…and lounge around:

Andy’s picked out the perfect colors for his new office:

And Caleb has more storage room than he could ever need:

The next step that will hopefully happen within a few days is the exterior painting. We let our Facebook friends vote for their favorite color and most of them chose the riskier option (hurrah!). We will probably be the first blue stucco house ever… and I thoroughly intend to start a trend. No more tan houses!!

Since we’ve had a lot of projects around the house with the remodeling going on, We’ve gained a little blonde-headed shadow that often imitates whatever we do. Here are a couple of videos showing his busy big-boy activities.

Picking out paint colors for the walls:

Reading the Sunday paper shopping for doorknobs:

A picture…

…and a video

To state the obvious, our lives have turned into a frenzied disarray. Dozens of people hammer away at various parts of the house throughout the day, everything is coated in a fine layer of sawdust, and we have a gaping hole in our living room wall. It’s chaotic right now, but the changes are very exciting. Here are some pictures I took this evening right before the sun went down.

The huge hole that will soon be an archway into the new room:

What is soon to be the new living room. That creepy dark doorway will be Andy’s new office/man cave:

The view from the new living room into the house:

Our new enormous new patio roof. It will be insulated and finished with a ceiling fan when all is said and done. The  ply board wall on the left is the office addition:

And the view from the backyard. The room on the right is the office addition sans windows