Our Mid Year Review

I forewarned that this blogging thing was not my gift and after Christmas I had almost decided that I would be a one and done blogger until...the busyness of life constantly reminds me the days are long but the years truly are short.  Our little ones are changing almost daily and I feel so guilty that I am not doing a better job of recording it.  I have watched a precious little girl fight for her life at erikandkatekrull@blogspot.com and have been even more convinced that I need to enjoy and remember every moment God has given me with my own family. So here goes the Holton's Mid Year Review...

January was a fun month.  We spent alot of time at home which is what I love to do on cold days.

Angelica is the newest member of our family and she had a birthday!

 WE celebrated this sweet girls 21st birthday with lots of friends and lots of love.

 My friend Ashley helped get Angelica ready for her Winter Banquet.  Didnt she look beautiful?

February started good until my dad gave me the scare of my life.  I received a phone call after church on a Wednesday night which led us rushing him to the hospital at 10 p.m. because he was unable to breath.  He spent one full week in ICU and two weeks in a regular room receiving treatment for blood clots in his lungs, an infection in his right lung, and a slew of other medical issues.  Praise God that He heard our prayers and chose to heal my dad and give him strength to fight.  He suffers from COPD and after that three week hospital stay I am so proud to tell you that it has been 18 weeks since he has stopped smoking! This was such an answer to prayer because he has tried numerous times to stop with no success.  We give credit through Lucy's persistent prayers each and every night that Pawpaw would stop smoking and that God would give him the strength to stop.  God answered in so many ways and we are so grateful. 

During this time we squeezed in a BIG celebration of this sweet girl turning 5!!

I blinked and she is all grown up.  We had a "sorta sleepover" where her friends sorta slept over but were picked up at 9.  We did all things you would do during a sleepover in three short hours.

 We had pillow fights in our jammies

we had a slipper swap

 made head bands,

adopted a new sleeping friend

 ate teddy bear pancakes

 hit a pinata, and ended with cake and presents. 

It was a fun celebration.

March was a month of catching up and rejuvenation. Micah and I took our first trip away from the girls to the beach.  We spent alot of time on the beach tanning and reading.  We also ate lots of yummy fun and we actually had conversation while we ate:)  We missed our girls but my how we enjoyed quality time getting away together.  We hope it will be something we can do every year. I am still regretting that I didn't take my camera so we have no pics to look back at.

I did however have my camera handy for the annual tulips and cherry tree pics at the Botanic Garden. 
Here are a few:

We started April off by celebrating two years of blessing and exhaustion all bundled up in this little body. 

We had warm weather early so we celebrated Anna Claire turning two with a water slide and moon bounce party.  She loved every minute of it!!
 

 Anna Claire had lots of sweet friends and family come to celebrate.

In May Micah took us to our MOST FAVORITE place to vacation EVER and I watched my girls do what they love to do at the beach..play!!

Lucy is now able to walk to the second sand bar without the water measuring over her head and Anna Claire would have been content to be held and playing in the ocean for the entire day.

 Micah also did what he loves most which was play with both girls doing what ever they commanded.  (Have I mentioned that he truly is THE BEST DADDY??).  A few examples of what his vacation looked like were "battling" the waves with Lucy, watching for fish and even a baby shark, building sand castles, playing silly games made up while in the ocean, dancing like a prince with his two princesses, riding the bike for miles and miles to get yummy treats, etc. 

building a perfect sandcastle

playing on the Alys Beach playground

taking a walk on the beach

This was the first year that we let Lucy ride her bike along 30A and she loved every minute of it. 

Anna Claire had so much fun doing all the same things but as I was uploading my pics I noticed I captured alot of these moments:

not sure about the slide

stop with the pics mom

 a trip in the sand

mischief

no more pictures!

Can you tell that this girl has personality??

I sat one night after we put the girls to bed and flipped through old pictures on my phone and Facebook with tears streaming down my face as I was reminded of how fast Lucy is growing. 

With AC being so busy and keeping me on my toes all day I feel like I lose sight of the fact that they are both growing up so quickly.  And in a little over seven weeks Lucy will be starting kindergarten!!  How did that happen?  I'm not sure but what I am sure of is I want to savor every. single. moment. 

June has been fun so far with lots of swimming in our pool

with our newest and favorite friends from the Neighborhood School

and our cousins

learning to float

lots of popsicles outside, vacation bible school at our church

 a visit to see our favorite Dyersburg friends, Red Birds games

playing in the sprinkler

 Lucy's new best friend Callie joined in on the fun

working on our tan

 
and then the mundane things that comes with life. 

Whew, so thats the highlights of our year so far and hopefully I will do better in the future.  These guys are truly a gift from the Lord and I want to take captive every moment and recognize that every day, every minute I get to be apart of their lives is truly a blessing.