The Day After Thanksgiving

It's the day after Thanksgiving, so we've been busy this morning setting up our few Christmas decorations including a small tree with lights, a snowglobe, and some holiday candles. We also pulled out this familiar little metal top from Grandma Jessie's. Luke is big enough now to know how to make it work, and besides putting it in his mouth, I think he's got the idea! I love the way he flicks his little fingers to make the top spin!

Speaking of the day after Thanksgiving, last year I was in a Humanities class, and we were studying different styles of art, including Surrealism. We had to do a project where we make a piece of art in one of the styles, so I decided to do a surrealist painting in the style of Rene Magritte. You'd recognize his paintings in a second (the guy in a bowler hat with an apple over his face or the pipe with a plaque reading, "This is not a pipe"). Anyway, I had a dream a day or two earlier where I was sitting in the parking lot at Carrabba's and I had my backpack open with books spread out all over. Someone came up to me and started talking to me, and while I was distracted, another woman stole my wallet from my backpack. I remember that there was a lot going on and a lot I had to do, but because my wallet had just been taken, all I could think about was trying to get it back. So that's what I painted. The man in the bowler hat looking at a giant canvas where the only thing visible is a wallet with a pair of wings, flying away.

Of course I commissioned Dad to help with the painting. We had a great time, the day after Thanksgiving last year, drawing sketches of our ideas, studying lots of Magritte's paintings to see what themes he used , mixing paints and cleaning brushes in the fishbowl, taking a break for leftover turkey and potatoes with gravy, turning up the music really loud in the studio and whistling along with it and loving it all. We spent almost the whole day working on that painting. I had bought three canvases, so I painted my own version while Dad did his own similar version (same subjects and colors, but leaps and bounds more technical and artistic). Here is a picture I took of my painting (which has been sitting on our mantle, above the fireplace since we moved to Texas):

We painted the background and sky first. The clouds came next with the giant white canvas. Then we painted the trees that look like individual leaves. We finished with the main character, the man in the bowler hat who represents the artist, and the flying wallet. Dad spent so much time on his that he didn't finish that day. I asked him about it later, and he told me he had since finished his trees, and all he had left was to paint the man in the bowler hat (himself) and the stolen wallet. Unfortunately, Dad passed away before he ever finished the painting. His painting and mine look very similar except for that one striking difference: his painting is missing the artist, and it will remain unfinished forever now that the real artist is gone. I hope to frame and hang my painting with his unfinished painting someday to always remember the attention he always gave to his kids. I'll never forget that day after Thanksgiving 2008 when Dad and I spent the whole day together, doing something he loved so much.

(It was his idea to have me sign it like Magritte signed his paintings in the bottom right corner, but slightly modified: "Mark-ritte.")

Thanksgiving and Luke at the Park

We went to the park this afternoon to celebrate Thanksgiving in the beautiful, cool Texas weather. Luke had a great time! We went on the swings and down the slides. He sure loved to roam around and see all the other kids and dogs. He's such a big boy!




The other night we gave him the tickle torture, too. He loved it! He likes to lean over backwards when he's sitting on our laps, so we tried flipping him over. He's a big, cute kid! These videos are too large to send through the email (20 MB limit), so we have to post them here until we can find a better way to share them.

Luke's new shoes

Suzanna bought Luke some new shoes today. He was getting really good at walking without shoes, so when we put these on him today, it was funny to see him have to "relearn" to walk.

Cute boy is growing so quickly. Happy 11 month birthday Luke!

Crazy Luke learns to walk

I'll let the videos do the talking...

All in a day's work :)

The Destroyer

Luke is crawling. Does that explain the title? About a month ago we were in Utah and Luke was showing off how he could scoot backwards. I was sure it would be that way for at least a couple months, but within a few days of being home that all changed. He first started with doing pushups, which quickly evolved into rocking back and forth on his hands and knees. Then he was flopping forward and began to sort of 'swim' across the floor. I thought that it would be quite awhile before he ever learned to crawl normally and there was always that possibility that he would never crawl normal. But he fooled us and within a week he was crawling like a pro and pulling himself up onto EVERYTHING.

He loves to stand and climb onto anything he can find a way onto or into. His favorite spots for climbing have been the VCR box, the fireplace, the dishwasher and the shelf on his changing table. As for standing, anything or anyone will do. Yesterday, he figured out how to get back into a sitting position from crawling or standing. He has also learned to cruise and if I'm not paying attention he'll cruise on down the pew to introduce himself to all of the families on our row or the row behind us. He is a very social baby to say the least.

When we are out and about he is always catching the eye of the other shoppers and gives them charming smiles and talks to them. Everyone gets so excited and feels privileged that a baby 'likes them.' I just smile and reassure them in their thinking without letting them know that Luke isn't too particular about who he does or doesn't like. In general Luke is a very happy and easy going baby. He is good everywhere we go and I can only hope that the rest of his siblings will be the same.

The greatest thing Luke learned this last month was to sleep 11-12 hours at night! It is so amazing! Some nights he sleeps up to 14 hours and he often goes to bed before 7. So, that makes for some nice evenings. Luke has also grown 2 teeth on the bottom and he loves to chew on things. I often wonder if I am raising a little boy or a puppy. There are quite a few similarities between the two.

Luke hit the 25 pound mark and wears 24 month clothing. He has certainly become quite a burden to carry around for too long, but he just keeps growing in weight and height so quickly. Everyday he amazes me with the things he figures out or understands. I can't believe he is already 8 months old. Life just goes too fast.

Luke always puts his left leg up on his knee when he's just hanging out on the floor

Well, other than our excitement with Luke's advancements there aren't too many exciting things going on with us. Things are going well for Mark at work and he is learning more and more each day about what an actuary really does. I am still working from home and trying to find new things for Luke and I to do during the day so we are not bored. Mark and I are speaking on Sunday and so we are working on our talks. Yipee! Last weekend we went to a rodeo and it was a lot of fun! I think we'll make it a tradition. Next week we are going to Utah for the 4th of July and I will be staying there with Luke until the 25th. Unfortunately, Mark will be heading back to hot Texas on the 7th.

Speaking of heat, it is way too hot here! It has been over 100 degrees the last few days and there is no relief in sight until sometime next week. I'm glad we'll be in Utah to at least avoid the humidity.

I think that's it. I have a bunch of pictures so look at the sidebar for the slideshow. If you click on the slideshow you should get connected to our picasa webpage. Hope everyone is doing well!

Father's Day

Today has been a day of mixed emotions. We heard a lot of wonderful messages in church about fathers and their role in our mortal lives on earth as well as the eternal nature of family. Today, June 21st, 2009, is the first time in my life that I've been able to celebrate Father's Day as a father myself. Strangely, it is also my first Father's Day without my Dad. Last year on Father's Day, Suzanna and I had recently found out the gender of our unborn baby, and we were both very excited over the idea of having a little boy in our family. I am still a little shocked over the very unexpected events of the last five and a half weeks.





Here is the last picture (I believe) that I have with Dad. It was taken at my graduation on Friday, April 24th, just three days before we left for Texas. The whole family was together on Mother's Day in May except for us, and we were sad that we couldn't have been there, especially after Dad passed away the next Friday, but Suzanna, Luke, and I had almost an entire week to spend with him and Mom as I graduated and we cleaned our apartment and packed in preparation for the move to Texas. We had a lot of fun that week, and I'm glad that we made a lot of good memories. I'm grateful that his health was so good for the last few months and that there weren't any more hospital stays for him.




I love this picture; my dad and son together the day Luke was born. I've thought a lot about both of them and our relationships today as we honor our fathers. I am very grateful for both of them because they have both had a profound influence in my life, and I am very thankful for the sealing power of the Priesthood which allows us to be a family for eternity.


Since I can't call Dad today to wish him a happy Father's Day and express my love to him, I thought I'd post these pictures and express my appreciation to him through the blog. I think about him often, as so many every-day things remind me of him. I hope that I can be a dad to Luke like my Dad was to me. I always felt comfortable around him, and I will always cherish the countless memories I have of him. I know we'll see him again someday, and that day will be relatively soon when considering the 'big picture.'


Dad, I miss you a lot already, but I know you are well and happy where you are. I love you! Happy Father's Day!

"The Holdaways go to Texas"

Well, we're Texans now. We've been here two weeks (tomorrow), and life is starting to settle down. Last Monday I started work for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas as an Actuarial Technician (my lowly designation for lack of experience and exams). I spent most of the week doing orientations, trainings, and studying for the second in a long series of Actuarial Exams. I took the exam on Saturday at a national testing center down in Dallas where I had to wait an hour past my scheduled time just to sit down to take the test. It wasn't a very easy test, considering both the subject matter and the stress of graduating, moving, and starting a new job when I should be studying. Apparently candidates are encouraged to spend at least 100 hours studying for every hour the test lasts. In the case of this exam, Financial Mathematics, that would be 300 hours of study time! Whoa! Sadly, I wasn't able to spend quite that much time studying, but I am glad to announce that the preliminary unofficial results were good. I passed! I'll get the official transcript in 6-8 weeks, but I don't really care much what my score was because I passed!



We live in Plano, which is surprisingly different than we were expecting. I had only been to Texas once before, and that was just for 24 hours for the interview in February, so I didn't get to see much of anything. Suzanna had been to Texas before, but we were both expecting it to be Hickville, with dirt, dust, cowboys and cacti! We were shocked to see how green and clean it is here! We live in a great neighborhood in a fantastic community where we feel really safe. The roads are nice and the speed limits are pretty good, too. It's kind of a long drive to work for me (compared to any commutes I've had to deal with before), but it goes pretty quickly.

Our ward is great so far, and we had a lot of help moving in. We'll have to include some pictures of our apartment soon so everybody can see what life is like for us. Luke is growing like a weed still. He's got a tooth coming in, and he's not been a great sleeper lately, but hopefully he'll improve soon. We've got new couches, and we finally bought a TV as well, so things are just peachy for us! No Texas accents, yet though.

What's Up?

Things are pretty crazy around the Holdaway household. We have less than 2 weeks before we head out to Texas. We are very excited to make the move, but there is still so much to do before we leave. Right now Mark and I have been training someone to take over our jobs and we are trying to tie up all the loose ends at work. I am still planning on managing the billing department from Texas until I'm confident that things are going well.

Mark's last day of school forever is today!!! Congratulations! Now he just has to get through finals, graduation, moving, starting a new job and passing his 2nd actuarial exam in the next few weeks :)

Luke will be 6 MONTHS tomorrow! Holy Cow! Where has all the time gone? He is still as cute as ever and a very happy little guy. In the last couple of months Luke has mastered sitting up, spitting, eating everything in sight, sleeping through the night and eating his toes. He is still not too interested in rolling around and those teeth are nowhere to be found. We just love having Luke and enjoy his sweet smile and great giggle.

On Sunday Luke wore his first little suit-like outfit to church. He and Mark matched. Luke is now wearing 12 month clothes and just keeps growing. On Friday he had his 6 month appt. He was 19 lbs 14.5 oz and 28 inches long. He is sure a hefty dude to carry, especially in his carset which we need to upgrade soon.

For those of you who are around and we have not arranged to see you before we leave please call or email us to let us know when you are available. We want to get together with everyone before we leave.

Here are some pictures from the last little while:

Luke's Easter Outfit

What an excited little guy

He loves bathtime

Toys or Toes whatever is available is edible

Waving Hello

Lounging in his favorite chair watching TV

That's not how I put him to bed

Uh... Really?

This last weekend we were greatly enriched by the 179th Annual General Conference of the Church. Naturally, a conference recap made the front page of the Daily Universe. Lately I've been picking up a copy of the Universe to try my hand at the crossword puzzles, but today, I noticed something interesting about the main article. Take a look closely at the caption under the middle picture.

Notice anything odd?

Look more closely.

The "Twelve Apostates"!?! That's an inexcusable typo! Or completely inappropriate if it was 'intentional.' Either way, I think the editor of the Daily Universe should be fired.

I've actually noticed that a lot of BYU publications are riddled with typos. I'm not guilt-free when it comes to typos, but if I was planning on publishing something, whether in a newspaper or in a packet to be sold to students for enrichment in classes, I would take the time to edit for grammatical and punctuation errors. In my "Teachings of the Living Prophets" class, we had an entire packet devoted to the lives of the current apostles, but it was hard to understand the message because of the distracting typos.

May be I shuld right a leter to the editer and ekspress my fellings of frustrashion.

Life as we know it

Late night laughter after the Circus

Sorry it has been quite awhile. Life has been especially busy these days. I have been working a whole lot more than I did before Christmas because I've had to cover for some employees. It has been okay, but spending 8-10 hours away from Luke for most days of the week isn't ideal for me. Anyway, things have settled down a bit so I'm hoping I'll just be doing part-time again.

The last few weeks I have been substituting as the primary pianist and last week I was given the calling to be the new primary pianist. It has been fun, but I will miss not being able to go to Relief Society because I have to play the last 2 hours of church. Mark has been enjoying only having 3 classes this semester and is looking forward to graduating in April. He has been applying to jobs all over the country so we'll let you know where we end up. He is having fun being an assistant in the deacons quorum, although they have the attention span of 2 year olds. That usually makes for some interesting and sometimes frustrating lessons.


As for little Luke he is not so little anymore. Luke will be 4 months old next week and has been wearing 6-9 month clothing for the last month. He weighs over 17 lbs and is at least 26 inches long. Yesterday, we saw a 7 month old girl who is only 13 lbs and shorter than Luke. Luke looked like a giant compared to her. It was pretty crazy. I don't think of him as being a big baby until somebody else says he is or we come across older kids who are a lot smaller than he is. I suppose that's what you get with tall parents, a really tall grandpa and tall great-grandparents.

The clothes we had in the diaper bag were too small so Mor Mor (Mark's mom) got some out of her stash for Luke to wear. She said her boys were still wearing this sweatshirt when they started walking.

Unfortunately, Luke has had his share of illnesses. He had an eye infection followed by an ear infection and bad cold. Despite it all he still entertained us with his adorable smiles and giggles.

Luke happily helping me administer his antibiotic

We have enjoyed having Luke in a crib for the last month (thanks to Laurie!). He generally sleeps 6 or so hours for the first stretch and then a few more afterwards. We've had some 7-8 hour nights which have been quite a treat.

Falling asleep in Daddy's arms

We started giving Luke rice cereal recently because he is always hungry and wants to eat our food. He LOVES rice cereal. He will grab the spoon from me and shove it in his mouth if I'm taking too long to get it there. Luke loves to stand up and sit up and loves to devour his toys. Needless to say, we love having our little Luke around.

Yummy toys!

Luke really likes his hands

We finally got some good smiles!