4th of July

Ok, I know I am SOOO behind in blogging so my goal this week is to get all caught up... starting with July 4th! We spent the 4th in Utah this year to visit Aaron's family. It was really fun... Becky & Steve (and little Jackson!) hosted a milkshake contest and it was so intense haha. There were so many people at the house!! There were 3 different shake types: chocolate, fruit, or speciality. Aaron and I decided to enter the "fruit" contest with a raspberry-white chocolate shake. Let's just say... we had NO recipe and no idea what we were doing! Once we made our shake, we were pleasantly surprised and thought we might actually stand a chance. We got 3rd... out of 3 entries. Ha ha, pathetic!! Oh well, there's always next year!!

We took the cousins up to Park City and let them play on the carousel. We would have stayed longer and done things like rock climbing, zip lining, human maze, etc. but it started raining :( We were so sad... once again, next year!

On the actual 4th we had a big family BBQ and then did fireworks at Steve & Becky's. They bought a TON of illegal fun fireworks and we watched a show (run by the guys, of course) for an hour! At one point, a cop showed up, but he wound up just watching them with us. We definitely lucked out on that!!

Anyway, we are making the 4th quite a tradition with the Holkers. Next year there will be a Wipe Out style water obstacle course and Aaron and I want to rent sumo suits... ha ha ha!! We can't wait to make it back again.

Oh and one last thing... I ran my first 5k post- baby. Let's just say it wasn't very fun (or very fast), but I finished!

Off to Georgia...

As if I wasn't already behind ENOUGH on blogging, we move to Georgia tomorrow! Gabe and I will be there until August 22. We'll head back here for Gabe's (early) birthday party on the 23rd (so that Aaron can be here.) I CANNOT EVEN BELIEVE I AM STARTING TO PLAN HIS FIRST BIRTHDAY PARTY!? Whyyyyy is he so BIG!?

The Bachelorette

Just a quick post here... but who watches the Bachelorette? I finally got caught up last night, and I really only have one thing to say:

I want Jillian's wardrobe.

End of story.

Gabey Baby

While we were in Georgia, we found out Gabe's new favorite toy: his small umbrella stroller. He LOVES to push it around and will do so for 1/2 hour- 45 min if we let him! We took him to a park in downtown Atlanta and let him go to town one day.

His other new trick is to clap. Anytime he stands up alone he claps for himself, and if anyone says "yay" or starts clapping he will too. I have videos of both of these events... but once again, I can't get them up right now!

He has taken a few steps by himself but won't do it consistantly or if he realizes he is walking. We know that he can do it, though, and isn't far off from walking like a champ!

For now, here are some pictures (you can see in the one picture how strong his attachment is... Aaron holds Gabe, Gabe holds the stroller... ha!):

2LT Holker

Aaron graduated from OCS (Officer Candidate School) on June 25th and is now officially a 2nd Lieutenant! We are so proud of him. He worked really hard over the past three months and placed 4th out of 200 people... way to go love!!!

He has been in the military 5 1/2 years now. Prior to OCS, he was enlisted. He was an E6, or staff sergeant. Now that he is an officer, he is more "on track" to do the military for a career. Officers get their commission one of three ways: graduating from West Point, going through ROTC at a university, or OCS. Aaron will have to complete his degree (he has 1-2 semesters left) before becoming a Captain (in about 3 years.) We are really excited for this change! It also means a nice increase in pay :)

Here are some pictures from our trip to Georgia:





Here's the video from his ceremony... I cut off the "2nd Lieutenant" before his name, oops!

Back to Georgia

Well, in about six hours (3:30 am?!) Gabe and I will be driving to Georgia to see Aaron! We'll be there until June 30, then we go visit Aaron's family until July 6. I'll try and blog in-between, since we'll have lots of exciting things going on... like Aaron's formal and OCS graduation! No guarantees, though, and if I don't get on here in time... Happy 4th of July! :)

Childcare

Alright, other moms out there, have y'all done childcare with your baby/babies before?

IF I go to Texas in August and start working towards my master's, Gabe will have to be in childcare for about 13-14 hours per week.

Monday I would have class 330-730, Tuesday to Thurs 330-630.

So that's the dilema. I don't WANT him to be in childcare :( but I also want to get this year of prerequisties knocked out before we have another baby (planning ahead, nobody freak out now!)

So.. the childcare is on the campus.

Do I go full time, get it all done? Or do I go part time? Or do I just say forget it until Aaron can be there and wait to go back to school? I'm just worried that the longer I wait, the harder it will be to do it, and I'd rather get the pre-reqs done so that I'll only have the actual master's to do after....

Help?! :)