Lizards

You know what happened while we were in Buffalo?

A LIZARD moved into our yard. He's awesome.



Jake spotted him first.

He called me over and we c a r e f u l l y crept up on him. Mom didn't even believe how quiet we were being.

He sat there for a little while and then crawled over the edge of the wall.

We watched him go all the way down to the end by the chickens.

We have looked for him every day since. It's weird, but it almost seems like he hides when we come busting through the door...

We had a really great weekend and Mom is still sad that she didn't bring her camera on our Sunday hike. We spent the morning at Torrey Pines wandering the trails. Even I could walk most of it! We were cute and it was beautiful...imagine how lovely the photos would have been.

So our big plant today is to hang out at home. It's been sunny all week, but today is cloudy and cool. (We definitely don't plan outdoor activities in San Diego when it's 60 degrees and cloudy.)

Mom and I "worked" for a while this morning.

This is my "good boy" pose.

And this is me drinking the rest of Mom's coffee. I do it every day.

It's just so good!

I am, of course, wearing my puppy shoes. (I would be wearing my snow boots of we'd brought them back here.) They have become interchangeable with my new Toy Story slipper-boots.

Jacob is happy because Mom extended his video game-playing time this morning. He'd play MarioKart all day if not for the timer we set for him. (30 minutes...just like when Mom was little and played the original Nintendo.)

Such concentration!

Happy MLK day! And happy birthday, Uncle Danny...a day late. We love you!

Love,
R

Buffalo Christmas Vacation

Our trip, in pictures...


Daddy and Grampa Mike made LOTS of jerky. Like 25 pounds of jerky.

There was shooting of guns.

Ry was watching Uncle Dan shoot. He decided, "That's pretty cool."

Snowy path.

 

Whoa! It's cold outside!

Ryan spent a long time making footprints in the snow and then checking them out.

Playing in the snow is really, really fun.

So is playing with Uncle Dan.

 

And apparently so is...well, whatever this is that Ryan is doing here.

Aunt candy and Aunt Becky took me and Ryan to Niagara Falls. Mom and Dad went back on their own. It sure is a big waterfall...

We got to hang out with Kelly and Molly.

And Carleigh.

 

 Candy, Ryan, and me.

 

Trick! It's not really Ryan, but the decapitated elf head that we played with.

This was a sad part of the trip, like always.

Carleigh and Aunt Becky. Those Aunts sure do seem to like us kids! It works out well, though, because we really love them.

Here's our Uncle Danny. We got to play with him a lot. That's pretty awesome.

 

We had such a fun trip. Mom didn't take nearly as many pictures as usual...there are lots of faces missing from this page, but we are so glad we got to spend time with people we love. Of course, there are lots of people we wish we'd been able to see but somehow ran out of time before we had to go home.

As sad as we were to leave our Buffalo family, we were glad to be back in our house today. There are two guys in this picture with us who were VERY happy that we were back...

Back to reality...

Love,
J & R

A Night at the Holkos

Seems like time is flying by lately. We are just 10 days away from Christmas! Hard to believe, isn't it?

Tonight, we had nothing in particular to do. It was great.

We had dinner together, which was pretty tasty. Mom made us lasagna.

We followed that up with a show. It started with Mom reading a Christmas story and somehow turned into Dad acting out silly things with the hand puppet.

You can tell he's really into it.

That Dad of ours...

We spent some time hanging out and playing with our dogs. And sitting on them. Gotta love Golden Retrievers.

We cuddled Daddy.

We even kissed him!

Then it was time to brush our teeth. Jake helps me do it since he's so big now.  We even keep most of the toothpaste in the sink.

Thank, a quick show before bed. Three Holko boys on the couch.

(Anyone else notice the grip dad has on the remote?)

Life is good around here.

Love,
R

Little Drummer Boy

Our teacher asked us to practice our song at home. We will be having our Christmas show at school on Monday night.

I've really been practicing a lot.

I've even put my own spin on the song. Enjoy.




Love,
J

Hot Cocoa

It was a hot cocoa kind of morning in our house today.

It was actually pretty cold here last night. Like low 40s cold. We're sissies.

AND it's a good excuse to have hot cocoa for breakfast.



The countdown begins: 3 weeks til we are in Buffalo! (Where it is actually cold. We'll be needing lots of hot cocoa.)

Love,
R

Stomping Good Fun

Oh Aunt Becky, you sent a great present out here for Ryan!

When he first opened up the box, he was super excited about the big bubble wrap and immediately began stomping on that.

Just imagine how excited he was once we set up the actual present.

I even let him play with it for a little while.



We love it! I mean...Ryan loves it. Thank you so much for thinking of little Ryan. We can't wait to come back to Buffalo and give you, and everyone else, big huge hugs!

Love,
J

(Disclaimer: It had been a long day when this video was recorded and Dad had been out of town for a few days. You may have detected it in Mom's voice.)

Santa Claus Is Coming...

And apparently he's already watching me.

How does that guy know all of this stuff??

http://www.portablenorthpole.tv/watch/guXL9JkRAjiKGFOHZUxuN4g

I'm on the nice list. At least for now.

Love,
J