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Holli Pool Photography

Photographer + Filmographer: Stuarts Draft, Augusta County, Staunton, Waynesboro, Harrisonburg VA

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December 2018 - Letters to Our Children

Mason, Rylan, and Elli

In November we did quite a few fun things: the Pass it On family night at school, Daddy’s birthday, a trip to PA, Thanksgiving, and the Staunton Christmas Parade with Poppy. This year we also started some new traditions of Closing Ceremonies for Fall and Opening Cermonies for Christmas. When we said goodbye to fall, we first went through some toys to give to Love INC that hopefully some other kids can enjoy at Christmas this year; then we went to Milmont Greenhouse to get free donuts; we ate Thanksgiving leftovers; and then we finished our ceremonies that night by drinking apple cider, eating ginger snaps and cinnamon teddy grahams, and talking about our fall this year.

Opening Ceremonies for Christmas was the next day. We decorated the house and put up our trees in the morning, and then in the evening we watched The Grinch (the oldest cartoon one) and drank chocolate milk. I think we are all big fans of our new ceremony traditions!

Mason, you got 4th place in the Gobbler Trot this year with a time around 8:50! Poppy ran with you, and he said you ran the whole way! Rylan, you were the second youngest in the race, and Nonni said you passed several big kids as you ran! The two of you have been doing equal parts fighting and playing together this month. I love those stretches of time where you are doing fun things together and no one is trying to hurt the other one though!

Elli, you had a few more speech visits this month. Even though it’s hard to notice much of a difference day to day, you are slowly making progress in both signs and real words. It’s so cute to hear you put together things like “bye” and “Daddy” in a really sweet voice, while waving. And of course you practice the word “no” very often still. You LOVE Puggles and your class in church. You go to your class so much better than Rylan does. I can’t remember if I mentioned last month, but Rylan has taught you the new trick of “play dead,” and I got a couple pictures of it this month. It always makes us laugh.

Here are some funny quotes from this month!

“Mommy, chocolate is made out of chocolate chips, peanut butter is made out of peanuts! And jelly is made out of....jelly beans??”
— Rylan
“They are my very very very AT LEAST favorite kind of pants!”
— Rylan (very angrily)
“Daddy, did you hear me crep into the shop??”
— Mason
“I’m doing an obsta-course!”
— Rylan
“Mommy, I want you to read the quilts again.”
— Mason, talking about the quotes from last month's letter
“People really can’t live if someone stabs them in the armpit.”
— Mason
“I’ve beat Caleb (Erdman, in a race). I mean, I haven’t. I mean, I can.....it’s my mission.”
— Mason
“NO Elli!!! How I DARE you!!!”
— Ry, in a very mad voice

Love you, cute kids.

Love, Mommy

Saturday 12.08.18
Posted by Holli Pool
 

November 2018 - Letters to Our Children

Mason, Rylan, and Elli

October came and went with leaves starting to change colors and then fall off by the end of the month.  It stayed pretty warm for the first few weeks, and then the temperatures changed to that comfy sweatshirt weather.  We started the month with Daddy being on vacation and a long weekend trip back to Dayton, TN.  Mommy and Daddy were so happy to show you around the place where we have so many memories.  We went to the Apple Barn (the second year in a row you’ve gotten to go there!), stayed at the Holiday Inn Express (with lots of swimming in the pool!), and walked all around Bryan College.  Daddy even got to hit a few baseballs on Friday night at the baseball field.  Leanne and her kids, Andra and her family, and Auntie Jo Baby and her family were all there to hang out for the weekend.  None of us could really believe it has been ten years since we graduated.  Anyway, it was a really good time, and for the most part, the trip went smoothly (not the way down so much...but we at least made it there quickly!)

 Mason, you were off of school during the story time at the Stuarts Draft library in October, so I took all 3 of you there.  They had a craft and coloring afterwards, and it was fun.

One day that Mason had a half day at school, we were going to go to the park afterwards, but it started raining.  So instead we went downtown to pay my ticket from having an overdue inspection…and ended up walking like six blocks in downtown Staunton (all 4 of us. in the rain.) since I didn’t know where to go to pay.  But the guy was much nicer than the last lady I met there, so that made it less of a painful process.  After that, I showed the three of you the depot and the Amtrak station place, and we went up on the bridge.  It was fun to explore together there.  Then we went to the mall, ate our sandwiches in the parking lot, and went in to play.  After jumping from thing to thing in the play place of the mall, we went to see if any of the “rides” would work without money- but they must have fixed them all, because they wouldn’t move.  Then we went to the photo booth and paid $3 for that….because I love photo booths and wanted yall to be able to see how fun they are.  After that, attitudes/behaviors really went downhill, so we ended pretty quickly after that. But most of our afternoon was really fun together.

Our biggest/longest family day this month was spent starting at Galactic Donut, followed by a 2 ½ hour drive, and then 7 hours spent inside of IKEA.  Yeah.  7 hours.  Going through the check-out line 4 separate times, and even eating supper there.  You boys were not on your best behavior a lot of the day, but we made it through.  You got to spend an hour in the play place that you loved (and we found out afterwards you could have gone back after a little while, but we didn’t know that when we were there).  Elli, you handled the long day pretty well, even though you were so tired.  All 3 of you fell asleep almost immediately in the car on the way home…like earlier than you would have if we were home!  AND you stayed asleep the whole way back. So that was basically a miracle.

 We had a one day visit with Nana this month.  She brought us biscuits from Hardees and then came back later in the day to see Mason when he came home from school. Nonni spent the morning of her birthday at our house.  She played with the 3 of you (Mason you didn’t have school that day), we played with her new 3D pen, and we got a calzone from Ciro’s for lunch.  We also had some of the cookies that Mason and I made together for dessert. 

Halloween of course happened at the end of the month.  You know that I’m not a fan of Halloween, but you boys loved seeing “spooky houses” this year.  Mason, you were Batman, Rylan, you were Scooby Doo, and Elli, you were a Pooh Bear honey pot.  It was actually warm during trunk or treat, which was amazing, and it was light outside for the first half of the time there….so there were at least a couple positives for the night.  We ate our hotdogs after you boys went through the jumping things, and then we went to Aunt Michele’s house afterwards to see her, Uncle Wesley, and Jill. 

Elli, you had an audiology appointment, eye doctor appointment, and a few speech appointments this month.  The audiologist said you were hearing fine, so we aren’t going back there.  The eye doctor said that you have an astigmatism in both eyes and that you’re going to need glasses probably next year…so that will be a new adventure for us when that happens.  And the speech therapist started coming twice a month to try to help you with talking.  Anyway, in the mean time you’ve been very cute and are saying some new things like “hi,” “bye,” and “Mommy” all very clearly.  You’ve also learned the signs for “cracker,” “truck,” “thank you,” and “milk.”  You love waving to people anywhere we go and telling them “hi” or “bye.”  And of course, people always love seeing you, so it never seems to bother anyone when you’re overly friendly.  You have also learned a silly face, which is really funny.  And you like to make a “NAH-nah NAH-nah NAAAH NAAH” noise in a sassy voice that Rylan taught you too.

 

Mason, you had a pretty good month at school I think.  It sounds like you’ve had some making-bad-choices issues when friends at school are being bad and you follow suit though.  And you had your second visit to the principal on the same day of school as you did last year, ironically, on Pass it On day.  So we’ve been having conversations about friend choices and things like that at home a lot.  You also had your first report card with some letter grades, and it was really good!  You had A’s, a couple A+’s, an “Outstanding” in Art (not Nonni’s class), a “Needs Improvement” in Library, and then a whole bunch of “Satisfactory”’s.  You’ve been memorizing a chapter in Psalms, and you’re learning it so well.  At home, you impress us again and again with your ability to get jobs done when you have a specific task to do.  You helped Daddy fill in the driveway with stone a couple weeks ago and you looked like a professional worker.  We love watching how dedicated you are when you set your mind to a job.  You also do a great job with your “man of the house” responsibilities when Daddy is working nights. You make sure the windows and doors are locked so that we’re all safe.

 

Rylan, you have been a mix of sweet and intense this month.  You seem to be getting angry faster and more often, and you’ve been asking for grace a lot after those times.  We also need to work on honesty with you, because you’ve been getting extra sneaky and then lying about it.  You seem to snap out of the bad times pretty quickly, though, and you also typically seem to be pretty remorseful afterwards.  You have also made a few comments this month about how you wished that just you and Daddy lived together, and that me and Mason and Elli lived somewhere else…ha.  We will try to not be too offended by that.  You and Mason get along great some of the time and fight terribly some of the time.  And sometimes it’s in public at really bad times.   You and I got to do a couple days with preschool lessons when Elli was napping this month.  You learned the letter “A” and have been spotting it everywhere since then!  You can also write both a capital and lower case A. You even spelled Mason’s name on the fridge without help the other day!

Here are some quotes from you silly boys this month.

“I do think that bears wear retainers.”
— Rylan, said when I was wearing my retainers at bedtime
“What vegetables do you like to eat?”
”Hot dogs....and.....sweet potatoes.”
— conversation between Rylan and me
“Well, HULK, however, could take the tires off of a monster truck with his pinky!!”
— Rylan
“Mommy, when I’m five and I drop a tooth out, I might need to put it in a bag.”
— Rylan
“Some adults lose their teeth. Like Poppy had to go to the dentist and they drilled out his tooth...”
— Mason
“Mommy, they shot a chicken and then made cheese!”
— Rylan (trying to figure out how different food is made)

I love you, my cutenesses,

Mommy

Thursday 11.08.18
Posted by Holli Pool
 

October 2018 - Letters to Our Children

Mason, Rylan, and Elli

I didn’t take nearly as many pictures this month as I normally do, so this might be a little shorter than normal. The end of August/beginning of September was full of West Virginia, Italian Festival fun. I saved the pictures last month to share them now since the weekend bridged the two months. While there, we went to a little family reunion, bits of two concerts (BeeGees cover band and Jo Dee Messina), hotel fun things, a library talk with some local/Italian authors, Italian food, and more.

Holli Pool Photography VirginiaFamilyPhotographer_0567.jpg

We went to Pennsylvania two times this month.  Once to go to the Mac Days thing (which ended up being cancelled due to expected rain), a celebration of Marion, and just a visit.  I ended up taking pictures of Mitchell while we were there too, since he’s a senior this year.  We –minus Elli- also got to visit with Aunt RuthE and Grandma Sollenberger, and play in her new hobbit house.  We watched part of a movie outside at the festival grounds and got popcorn and ice cream that night too.  Two weeks later we went back to Pennsylvania to acknowledge Elli’s birthday with that side of the family, since Mommy couldn’t find a time that worked for everyone to celebrate together in a party at home. We ate at CiCi’s that weekend, and we watched Daddy, Pappy, Uncle Levi, and Uncle Darrin cut down a tree on Saturday. 

This month was full of rain in Virginia.  After it had already been raining for days, Hurricane Florence threatened to attack us pretty hard, but it ended up hitting North Carolina more directly instead.  All of the places we went on vacation in August were right in the eye of the storm.  At home, we ended up getting lots more rain, a day off of school, and a super flooded road and driveway.

Awana started last month, and all of you are having a good time there- even Elli is in Puggles!  Mason, you are happy that Emma started coming to Sparks; Rylan, you like to go to Cubbies once you’re in there, even though sometimes you still cry before it starts; Elli, you are always fine going in to Puggles, and we hear that you do great every week.

Elli, you turned two this month!  We celebrated a few weeks late at home by going to the jumping place with Nonni and Poppy and then eating at Noodles & Company afterwards.  You’re still saying about the same amount of words.  We had two visits with the Infant and Child Connection, because they’re going to help us work with you on saying more words.  They thought you were pretty adorable, and you scored on-age-level or above on everything except for speaking. 

Mason, you had a hard month with your attitude certain days/times.  I think it was because of you being too tired, because it was taking you hours to fall asleep each night.  For the past two weeks we’ve been using melatonin again to help you fall asleep more quickly.  With that and Daddy being home at bedtime for two weeks, things have gone much smoother.  You still had some rough times, but they didn’t last as long as they did a few weeks ago.  You are doing really well on homework this year; it doesn’t take you nearly as long as it used to last year.  We’ve tried to be creative with practicing your spelling words, and you seem to like it a lot more that way.  You are also getting really good at drawing designs on paper.  I like it when you draw me pictures!     

Rylan, you’ve had a pretty normal month.  You love to read monster truck books and other books from the library.  You have started memorizing some of them just like Mason used to do when he was younger.  You’ve been talking about Jesus a lot lately and how happy He was to die for us, because He loves us so much.  You’ve also been building things with legos a lot; usually they’re things that fly or float or shoot guns.


Here are a couple funny things you said this month, boys:

“Want to know something? Poppy brushes his teeth and he doesn’t eat ANY sweet things.”
— Mason (not sure who gave you this info)
“There was a hole in the road bigger than humongous, and bigger than a perplexus.”
— Rylan
“Elli, you’re a human cutie, not the cutie that you nibble up.”
— Ry
“Can me and Elli play out there? We won’t make such a clatter.”
— Mason

Ok guys.  That’s it!  I love you!

 

Love, Mommy   

Friday 10.05.18
Posted by Holli Pool
Comments: 1
 
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