So, on Friday we had an ultrasound. As the technician was scanning around for the gender, we saw this . . .



She asked if we wanted to know the gender. We said, we think we can tell! What a proud little boy strutting his stuff. Two little boys!!!!! We are thinking of a few names. We are pretty solid on Alexander as the middle name after Alanna's younger brother. As first names we are thinking of Joseph (Joseph Smith) and Thomas (President Monsen) and Grant (Grant Crookston-my uncle). We figure we will know when we see his face. Canada fell through for me so it APPEARS that I'll be here till next year. I'm looking for jobs and hope to meet with my Stake President this week. He is a partner in a large and successful firm here in Indy. I hope to ask him about looking for work, letters of recommendation and law school decisions. I am really looking forward to it. He is a really busy man and I want to be respectful of his time. Alanna's classes are going well. They are really hard, but she is a smart girl and studies hard. We recently found out that work is providing a cruise for a group of guys I work with. My boss had saved about $20,000 of his budget and is using a bit of it to send a few of us on a cruise out LA. This is a link to our cruise! As a special treat, Amy is willing to watch James the week that we will be gone and we are thanking our lucky stars for it. James will be able to spend a whole week with his Holt side of the family. Because we are going over Thanksgiving, he will see those that are going to Rexburg for the holiday. Lets hope he doesn't get snowed in!!!!! It is Cove in the end of November after all. James is quite the climber now. He loves to climb on and in anything he can reach and fit. But I'll let the pictures give you the the thousands of words.

A Place of our Own and Birthday Week Fun!

We have finally decided on where to live this fall. We looked and looked at houses thinking that Alanna would take an additional year to graduate due to the baby and would be in Indiana long enough to make it worth our while. She thought that it would be way too difficult to have a baby in the middle of her last semester of school which will be 12 credit hours of Senior and graduate math classes as well as her Senior Capstone project. However, after lots of prayer, fasting, and careful consideration on both our parts she decided to plan on going for the GOLD!!! and is going to give her best effort to graduate next spring. WHAT A WOMAN I MARRIED. I told her I would stay home and take care of the kids and this way we can go anywhere for law school I want without worrying about her finishing her undergrad. So with only 10 months until she graduates we decided to get an apartment instead and found a nice one in our current ward boundaries. We are both excited and relieved to be the in the same ward for 17 months straight! Alanna hasn't been in the same ward for over a year since she graduated from high school. We really like the ward and enjoy our callings as well.

We had a fantastic week for James birthday on July 23. We took him swimming, he played with his cousins, and went to Chuck-E-Cheese. In the subsequent weeks we have gone to Kings Island, which is very similar to Lagoon except a quite a bit bigger and has a nickelodean themed kids area with rides after shows like spongebob-squarepants. Alanna and James also took a trip to the Indiana beach. I didn't get to go but Alanna has been telling me how fantastic it is and how similar it is to Florida. Since I couldn't go with her and James she took a lot of pictures to entice me to join them next time. James loved the water and ate a hearty helping of sand which stuck to his face. He had a fantastic time with his sand toys we gave him for his birthday. Kings Island was also very fun. There aren't very many rides that are James size but the ones we took him on he loved! Enjoy the pics of our little one on the Merry-Go-Round. In addition to the thrill rides the three of us visited the water park as well. James splashed in the zero entry pool and played in the water jets. He even got a face full of water a few times that didn't slow him down a beat. I really enjoyed going round the lazy river as a family. We even found a tube built for two we all floated in together. James loves to stare at people and he had a medley of faces to look at. I guess when you are one year old people don't mind if you stare them down. After the water park we had some dinner and he had some super wiggles. We let him walk anywhere he wanted to go and we just followed him. He received compliment after compliment on how cute he is and how his teeter todder walk added to their adoration. He still hasn't adjusted to the extra weight from walking with shoes.

As for me I am driving all over Indiana fixing security systems and tweaking our customer's systems that have recently been installed. Our sales crew has been all over the place looking for good markets to sell in and as a result I am driving to all those places to keep their customers happy. I can't complain much though because I like the guys I work with and its a good job. This fall I anticipate I will still be running an office which could be in Indiana or somewhere else. As always I won't know exactly where until shortly before I leave. Alanna is supportive of my efforts to provide for the family and wishes me the best in my efforts.

ohhh, and as quick side notes...

I lost my wallet at King's Island. We were holding out that I lost it on a ride, but lost and found hasn't turned up anything.

We will find out our baby's gender in september

How's your reading

So a couple of weeks ago, Alanna and I took this picture and sent it to some of our family. Its pretty fuzzy, but it tests you on your squinting abilities :)




Yes we are pregnant! Super excited and excitedly surprised! Looks like we'll add another Holt name sometime in January. I just can't wait to find out its gender and see Alanna's belly grow'n. She's not nearly as excited for that as I am. Tonight we gave her a blessing. She's already started to feel the exhaustion she felt when she was pregnant with James. Its good she has a three day weekend with her current summer schedule. It gives her time to rest from the 40+ hours she puts in Mon-Thurs on campus. I think we are both hoping for another boy. That way they each have a friend their age.

Work is going alright for me. Its a little slower than I'd like, but I think I'm managing the office as best as I can under the circumstances. We just lost one of my favorite techs who is going to another office where there is more work available. he said he liked working with us and wouldn't mind doing it again with me next year. That's good to know that even though we part, we are still on terms. I did have a chance to stop by the Indianapolis Speedway Museum while working in the area. A big guy like me doesn't fit in easily with these race cars.



Alanna is taking a heavy load in course work right now. She is doing her first summer block. Its only 7 credits, but Multivariate calculus and vector calculus squeezed into 6 weeks instead of the regular 17 weeks is quite the "cram session". Every summer class covers the same material as 3 regular fall/winter classes. She's a trooper and is trying to finish as much as she can before baby comes.

James has two teeth and almost has 4. the top two are killing him right now, and he slept most of today. With it being Sunday, we decided to make it a family even and we all jumped into the king size bed, we spent the afternoon there. He stands on his own and even took two little baby steps alone on Thursday. It wasn't enough to call it "walking" but he is sure getting close.

Chaka (the chocolate lab that lives with us) had her surgery last week. She was spayed and also had a skin tag on her belly removed. She seems so happy to be home she acts a little younger. She hops up the stairs instead of crawling and even hops into her chair next to me in our room instead of easing her way into it like she did before.

Tonight the 4 of us went on a couple mile walk around the neighborhood we live in. There are a lot of homes for sale and we wondered how much they were going for. It doesn't seem the ailing economy has dropped home prices here much. Stuff is still selling for over $200k. We aren't even close to being in that kind of market. I know prices around here are a lot lower than elsewhere in the country too.

As for me and school . . . well, we turned down acceptance hoping that I'd get into the school that we really wanted. It turns out that they I only got wait listed by IUPUI and William and Mary (which is a really good school). If either one accepts me (no matter how last minute) I'd drive out and attend. Right now, I've applied for a para-legal program here in Indianapolis at IUPUI. It will be something I can add to my resume showing I'm still actively seeking a career in law even though I didn't start school when I wanted.

Here are some pictures of James. I know that's why anyone comes to the blog so I won't hold out any longer. Love you all!







He didn't actualy drink. We thought it would be fun to give grandma holt a heart attack! :)




James' first OREO!






James getting ready for the shower!

James talking to Daddy on the phone!

Hiram's Birthday

Yesterday was my birthday. 26 is an interesting transition. I'm going on my next 25 years and closer to 30, which Rachel will hit next month :) I did some Pinnacle training on Friday and Saturday. Then we cooked steaks with the Humes' and Andy Head and had a German Chocolate Cake Alanna made for me. It was delicious! I opened some presents from Alanna and my cards from family. I used my birthday money from my Grandparents for a couple of outfits for James. I find it very fulfilling to see my baby boy in such cute clothes and since we have so many good clothes from family members we don't buy many for him. So I splurged. The pictures of James in his "Kiss me I'm Irish" and his brown shirt, vest and pants are the two I got.

I wish I was feeling better. I went to bed early last night. This cold had been terrible and today marks 8 days of it. It is funny that last year on my birthday my arm was in a sling because of my snowboarding accident and I spent my birthday in Indianapolis. So both birthdays here have been good, but my body just doesn't want to celebrate.

Also, my shoulder has been acting up again. I can't lift my arm up without feeling it slip in and out even though the surgery was supposed to tighten it up. When I fly back to Rexburg, I may go back to my doctor to see what he thinks of it.

I have a work meeting in Rexburg on the 28th. I'm thinking I'll be able to fly in the day before dad's defence! I was able to go to mom's and so this will be a great treat for me to go to dad's as well. Amy may come up for a few days! It will be fun to spend time with family again. Andy Migel hopes to bless their new baby on the 29th so I'll drive down for it and fly out the next day.

November Trip

I know it's March and we took this trip in November, but I realized I hadn't shared any of these pictures! Over Thanksgiving, Alanna, James and I traveled to Seattle and Portland to visit Alex Head and Grandma Holt. It was one of the best trips that I have ever been on. Maybe because it was a self initiated trip to visit family and family history sites. I feel much more like a dad planning vacations where we take the long way to visit grave sites and national parks. :)

Our first stop was to travel to Craters of the Moon National Park. It really is impressive to see how much area is covered by old lava flows. They have a great display that shows the landscape of Southern Idaho and see how the "hot spot" has moved from Central Idaho to the Buttes to Yellowstone. We had to carry James with us so we weren't able to go into any lava tubes (which are amazing) but we did see some great views and a great natural history visit.

After that stop, we made a visited Alanna's dad's hometown. We saw the home he grew up in but importantly, we were able to locate the graves of Alanna's grandparents! It was a little rainy, but we loved our little visit and I have posted some pictures of that visit, and if anyone would like a copy, let us know so we can email them to you.

And because James is such a bright part of our lives, I have included some pictures of him too.