3 years since our wedding

On the 30th December Deric and I celebrate our third year wedding anniversary. We got to thinking about how much we have done since we met each other five years ago….. Also to try understand why we are both so tired!!!! So please indulge me while I list what has happened in our lives in the past five years. It will explain why I have been saying that I want to stay in one place this year, no holidays, no crazy excitement.

We have had……
• 3 deployments – Iraq, Afghanistan, Columbia (Deric)
• 1 wedding – Johannesburg, South Africa
• 1 marriage – Las Vegas, USA
• Had 3 jobs – London (Producer) North Carolina (Sponsorship) and Dance teacher (Jo)
• Moved to 4 countries – England, Germany, USA, South Africa (Jo)
• Completed 1 BA Degree (Jo)
• Started a masters (Deric)
• Lived in 2 states – NC, KS
• Had 2 kids
• Had 78 weeks of pregnancy
• 1 cat

• Holidays in USA
o New York
o Las Vegas x2
o Virginia x7
o Maryland x2
o Miami x2
o North Carolina
o South Carolina
Key West

• Holidays in Europe:
o England
o Ireland
o Spain
o Scotland
o Greece (and islands)
o Italy
o Denmark
o Germany
o Austria

• Holidays in South Africa:
o Johannesburg
o Cape town
o Jefferies bay
o Pilansburg x2
o Sun city
o Tsitsikama forest

• Bought 1 house
• Rented same house out 3 years later
And....met so many wonderful friends!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And now getting ready to move again in the next 6 months ..... We still no idea where we are going!
One thing for sure, it's not going to be a boring life!!!!!

Kai and Dev's First Interview

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing

It sure is Christmas time!

Deric came home early today and we all played in the snow - I think 'ninni' was having the best time of all.....



















Then on Saturday we went to a Chrismas concert and to see Santa











We have just been chilling and keeping Devin out of the cold!!! He is growing so much and has already changed. He is still a dream and hardly makes a sound! Loving that... nights are on and off, he is now eating every hour so my time is pretty much occupied for most of the day!

We are really excited for Christmas... I am crazy about this time of the year.

Devin's First Week!

Well hello everyone, I am back – well sort of, things have changed here in the Holbrook house hold. Who would have ever thought that a new baby would change so much in our lives.

What I must say for all those friends of ours who are having their second – RELAX! It is so much easier than I could have imagined. Now granted I have not yet attacked a few questions about having 2.

1) How do I do grocery shopping and still have space in the cart for food?
2) How do I clean the house when Devin needs to be held?
3) How do I make dinner with a 2 year old and a newborn around me?
4) What I do when I need a shower?

These are just a few of the questions I have. I am sure I am with thousands of woman who are starter off #2 moms. Then I bet there are a couple more thousand moms who have 2 or more kids laughing at how they figured this all out.

But apart from that, this little man is amazing. He is very calm and just chills out and eats most of the day. He is a dream! I have decided never to have a 3rd, I don’t think I could get this lucky again! He has not figured out day and night yet – and at the moment he is sleeping all day and at times in a crib. But at night he wants to eat every hour and will not sleep in the crib! That’s the worst of it and it will be over soon. Thank god my mom is here to help me through this, by morning I have had no sleep and I can just hand him to her so I can get some catch up.

I saw Deric updated the blog when Devin was born, but he forgot a very important part of the ‘birth story’.

On our way to the hospital we were pulled over by a policeman for speeding. I could not believe it. It felt like something in a movie. We then started to tell the policeman (who was very nice by the way) that I was in labour and we were on our way to the hospital……… now how many times do people use this one to get out of a ticket? He looked at us like ??????? Well It’s not like your having contractions all the time when having a baby, most of the time you look pretty normal. So I showed him a book I had with me with all my contraction times in it. I might have thrown in a small, almost fake contraction to prove my point – but that’s still up in the air whether I was faking it or not!!!!! He then got that we weren’t playing and let us go. I sat in silence and in shock that this happened to us! Oh, after I told Deric to slow down!

Kailey is great, she loves the baby and the extra attention she is getting, also by having ‘Nini’ (granny) here. She feels like a real big girl and has the job of handing me the baby’s diapers when changing. She takes this very seriously. She always runs through in the morning looking for the baby and gives him a big kiss. The rest of the day she tries to hold him and kiss him. Today I caught her reading to him. Too cute!

Deric’s class has been feeding us this past week – We are so grateful to everyone who has made sure we are well fed and trust me, we are eating well!! This is the biggest gift you can get when you have a baby, the last thing on your mind is what’s for dinner, cooking, cleaning up and shopping! Thank you to everyone – I promise to pay it forward!

In other news – today I found out that I am officially a legal alien in the USA. I have been on probation for the past 3 years, and now I can apply for my passport! This is such a relief! We did not even have to go in for an interview , which my immigration lawyer says only happens to 10% of all applicants.
Phewwwwwww is all I have to say!

Also to finish my lucky one week birthday – Deric entered me in a competition at the Clarins counter in Macys this weekend, and I won a hamper!
My neighbor said I should go to the shop tonight and get a lottery card!

The latest Devin and Family Photos

Happy Birthday Devin Clive Holbrook!!!

The day has finally arrived. Joanne gave birth to Devin Clive Holbrook at 5:38am CST on December 1st, 2008.


The bouncing baby boy weighed in at 8lbs, 1oz and was 20.1 inches long. Both Devin and Joanne are in excellent health. They are both eating, pooping, and resting well (all three are very important for both mommy and baby). The labor was actually very easy and pleasant for all of us. We checked into the hospital at 12:01 am CST after about 3 good hours of regular labor at home. They admitted Jo at 5cm and 75%, let her go through a 2 more hours of contractions, gave her the epidural at 6cm, which then allowed us both to sleep for nearly 1.5 hours, we woke up and she was 10cm dilated and ready to push. Two practice pushes and one real push later.... Devin popped out!!! Yes... that's a grand total of three pushes for kid #2!!! Joanne was very excited about that. By 6:00am CST, Devin was poked and prodded, wrapped up and in Joanne's arms. Too easy!!


That's the story for now. Here are a few pictures to tide everyone over for a day or two. Thanks to everyone for all your prayers and good lucks.... They worked well!!

So much for 4 weeks to go!

We went to the doctor today!!!!! And I got some news I was not ready for…….
1) The baby is already almost 8 pounds (Kailey was 7lbs.6oz at birth)
2) I am 2cm dilated
3) My cervix is softening and heading towards labor

The other night I woke up and thought I was in labor – she said that was the beginning ………
It was at that very moment that I realized that we are so not as ready as we thought we were. I was banking on my mom being here to look after Kai while I was in the hospital.
The next morning I got my ass into gear and made a solid plan B! Our dear friend Kesh would come over when we called (day or night) and take care of Kai! She knows him well, so he was perfect.

Then I told my mom our news today, and tomorrow she is changing her fights (which were due to come in on the 2nd Dec) to next week or this weekend.

It’s all going so fast! I would like to keep this little guy cooking for one more week if possible. The doctor said due to his size they won’t stop labor when it starts.

Deric and I were in such shock – we realized we were going to have an actual baby within the next 2 weeks. I of course came home and balled my eyes out that I would no longer have Kai and my time ever again. I guess it’s the hormones! But still…….

36 weeks of 40 and counting...

Things on this side of my world are getting slower. I forgot this phase of pregnancy and how limited you are to moving around. Thank goodness Deric is around much more lately to help me out. I am at that stage where if it falls on the floor it stays there till Deric comes home, or till I get down and pick it all up at once.
Here is a 36 week belly shot……. Oh and the toothpaste on my belly button … that was Kailey learning how to brush her teeth, my belly always seems to get in the way.

This is a picture of Kailey I just love – not because it looks like she just woke up from her nap, but because this is how I read to her and I caught her in her bed reading to her baby when she thought no one was looking.

Some people have asked me how I will let everyone know about when I go into labor. Well our hospital has wireless and we will blog as soon as we have caught our breath …. and yes with pictures.

So over the next 3 or 4 weeks just keep checking.

Happy Halloween!!!!!

Here is Kailey's Halloween costume - not quite what we planned, but all she would wear. She had a rather large melt down before the event - so she is wearing her pumpkin pajamas and her lion outfit, without the head!!!!!
It was a fun night - we had 4 families come over to our house and we built a fire, and waited for the masses..... and boy were there masses.


I was not going to dress up - but since everyone arrived at our house in costume I brought out the old tea pot and wore that! Kai was very excited by this.

As you see - the candy kicking in. We did not go house to house. She did not understand what was going on, but she had freedom to eat all she wanted from our 4 bowls. I figure once a year, what the hell!

Uncle Kesh was also there - always spoiling Kailey!!!

The candy face! She was so sticky by the end of the night!

Our crazy neighbors! It was a great time with them.

The Holbrooks - Deric threw a tourist costume together in about 2 seconds. Most of the night he had a big camera around his neck too, and I'm not sure if you can see his two tone mullet he is wearing..... yip all class all style!

This is 11pm..... the latest Kai has ever stayed up - sugar crash and just wanting water! And so the night ended!

The rest of our weekend was relaxing!!

Here is Deric and Kai washing the car. I sat and watched them on the stairs, on the phone to my dear friend Tanya in NZ who I lived with in London .... great to chat Popaduck!

Then today (Sunday) we had some friends over for a tea. There was a lot of kids and we landed up playing outside. Just making the most of this great weather!

Now on Sunday night we are again relaxing - Deric is not studying tonight (which is a change)... so excuse me while I join him to watch a movie..... don't you just love Sunday nights!

Our little helper

Kailey really likes to help around the house, she feeds the cat everyday, dust's, scrubs anything she can and she helps with the dishwasher - as you will see in the video!!

My dress up girl

Playing with trucks in high heals....


Cooking in a princess dress


Accessorizing

Fairy Princess

Island girl....

Big Girl Bed!

This weekend we decided to get Kai a toddler bed. We are going to need the crib again soonish and I don’t want to rush her into leaving her beloved crib….
She was so excited when she got it, and now sits and reads in it for ages.


(And yes, those are truck pajamas! she only wants to wear truck pj's.... or as she calles them 'doh dohs' she is obsessed with trucks.)

She tried to sleep in it yesterday and managed to fall out twice! Here is the damage, you can’t see the blue on her eye, and it looks pretty nasty!



Tonight I just read to her in her new big girl bed and when the story was over she wanted her crib. I am going to start afternoon naps in the bed tomorrow, so we will see how that works.

She is adorable lately, I just love every phase. She is trying so hard to speak, and is getting new words every day, but jabbers all day long telling the most interesting stories and jokes that only she understands.

One thing I love is her sleep schedule. For her afternoon nap at 11am I don’t even have to say anything and she looks at me and says ‘bye bye’ takes my hand and walks me to her room. Then sleeps for 90 minutes.
Then at 6:30pm she says on her own, ‘bye bye’ grabs her baby, blanket, and dummy (pacifier) and goes to her room. She then wakes at 7am in the morning. Heaven!

The longest blog ever!!!!

Ok, ok I know I have been a terrible blogger (and my mom has let me know very clearly how bad) so I thought I would make it up and put a whole lot of stuff on tonight.
The truth is I am so tired at night that I just flop on the couch and that’s me!! Usually with a jug of water, and as much ice-cream and chocolate that I can devour!
So, we have been busy lately let me begin. Hope you’re sitting comfortably this might take a while, and serve me right for taking so long to update.
We take Kailey to a petting zoo called the ‘Big Red Barn’ when we go we tell her we are going to see Tessy bear’s chickens. This is from her favorite cartoon show called Noddy. (both Kai’s grandparents will know this show VERY well) So we go and see her chickens and she loves this……

She also gets to see the other farm animals and this week got to feed the goats! Very Exciting Suff!

Then Deric came to gymnastics with us and she got to show her Daddy all she does, I could have got more pictures if I had thought to charge the camera before leaving…… I think she just likes going since she gets stamps on her feet when she is done…. Ohhhhh and not to mention the bubble machine at the end!

Here I am at 31 weeks pregnant – I must add that I feel 20X bigger than I look… oh and then just because I posed for a picture, we had to take one of Kailey right after me! I noticed in the picture all the finger prints on the fire place she is not allowed to touch – I’m going to have to set this boundary of no touching very soon.

Then there was the renaissance fair …… I have never ….. ever… seen anything like this before. Deric and I walked around speechless. We could not tell who worked there and who were visitors like us. It was crazy and dare I say it, like a freak fest! Vampires with blood all over them, fairies – acting like fairies (these are adults). We walked around for an hour and decided it was time to count this as an experience we were richer for and go home. I did get some pictures but I was too scared to take any of the real freaky people!!!

And to end off with….. we have a bowl at the front door where we put keys and such inside. Kai is not allowed to touch it, so we put it far enough back so she can’t reach it…. But today she found a way to get in that bowl. She was caught red handed!