Dad turns 71!

John Albert Holman turned 71! Mom the ultimate party planner hosted a great party. They rented a church building, bought a ton of pizza and set up a projector for playing games on. The cousins ran a muck, explored the old building and made a play. I love having family close even better family that I love. The Smiths obviously couldn't be there, which stinks because Mom and Lindsey are definitely the two biggest party animals. John's family bought dad the old "Mr. Bill" videos and doll..it was a blast from the past. We watched some episodes the kids were very amused. The girls bought dad a medal detector which seems appropriate for retirement. It was a grand nigh for a grand Dad ♥️

Two races complete in the first 4 days of the new year!

We had our annual Howe famly 5K on New Years day. Danny and Pete designed a new course which involved circling the neighborhood park, 4 laps around. This made it easy for little kids not to get lost in the neighborhood and for spectators to see more of the runners. This year a miracle happened... I won the race!! So what if some of the families serious runners were jogging with their kids...I won! My speech was incredible, it spoke of my journey towards the podium.. 

Then on Saturday Benjamin and I ran in The Run Around Tucson Relay. The relay consists of 8 members. There was us, Mike and Katie Walston, her brother Jeff, and Katie's friend Kashmir, and a father son team Brett and Aiden Omadal. It was a fun team each runner had a leg that was anywhere form 5 to 8 miles. Benjamin did the longest leg of 8 miles which was basically all up hill. My leg was mostly on the south side of town in the city. It was 7 miles. It was cool because I have never run in that area of town. I was frustrated because at mile 3 I had to stop for a traffic light and it killed my mojo. My foot had been acting up the last couple of days and I was worried I wouldn't be able to physically do it but my foot felt great. Mentally at mile 5 I was donezo. It was a complete mental battle the last 3 miles of the race. But I finished! All in all it was a great race and we got cool medals, a t-shirt and a free lunch. I use the word "free" loosely because you do have to pay to do the run :)

For Christmas Benjamin and I got new running shoes for each other. We went to the Fleet Feet store. Its a shoe place that scans your foot to check your arch, posture and foot measurements and pulls shoes that work best for your physical frame. The shoes have taken a bit getting used to but it felt good running in new shoes.

Family Photos 2019

I was so grateful Carlie and Seth came to town for New Years, because Carlie could take our family pictures in 2019! She is an excellent photographer, who knows how to pose people and who also is extremely speedy! We took the pictures by Sabino creek that's next to our place. We go to the creek several times a week during winter break and usually weekly during normal weeks.

 Isabella Jules 18

 Olivia Jane 17

Holman Jackson 15

Parkin Joshua 12

Adrianna Joyce 10

 Benjamin and Lesley 42 and 41

 Going on 22 years of marriage!

Olivia Jane turns 17!!

17! Ten minutes before her official birthday begun at 11:50 pm Olivia started her birthday medley of songs that sang about 17 year olds...She always livens things up! This little girl has had quite the year. Many ups and unfortunately many downs...but she knows the value of stepping back and doing some self care and recognizing what truly is important.. Grateful she was able to walk away from the accident she was in and am hopeful this next year will bring more laughs and joy. I love you Olivia. You are gorgeous, smart, kind, funny, entertaining and truly yourself! What a privilege to be able to do this journey called life with you!

On her birthday her young women's president (me) decorated her door with hearts and things people like about her. She also got a QT hot chocolate-yum and a breakfast sandwich. As a family we went and saw the new Jumanji movie, it was hysterical. we got our fill of popcorn and soda. For dinner we picked up chicken tenders and salad from the grocery store as well as a store bought cake...all her favorite things. Olivia's birthday is the perfect post Christmas celebration!!

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day 2019

 We went to Winterhaven, the local Tucson neighborhood that goes all out with Christmas lights. I love that neighborhood and would gladly move there..nobody else is on board with that. The lights looked amazing as always.

Benjamin and I at Barbara and Ron's house for Christmas Eve. There was a stellar Nativity (where were the pictures?) 

My babies.

Holman cuddling with baby Leora. She was loving on this baby magnet!

Christmas day we went to Nan and Papas for some Christmas Bingo..I lost.

 You know it was a great day when we all took a Christmas nap! We had our standard Mexican food, mini chimi's and moms party chili dip, yumm! Then we had ugly steaks for dinner..another food coma!

Benjamin got me twin cabbage patch dolls....they are the smell of my childhood. Literally brought tears to my eyes.

Fly like an Eagle....Holman earned his Eagle!

Holman earned his Eagle..it truly was all him from start to finish. He chose his project. He called and arranged everything with the facility, called people to volunteer and led the group. He chose the Therapeutic Riding of Tucson. Its an organization that provides horse back riding to kids with physical and mental disabilities. The organization needed to put their sensory bridge in a new spot, it needed to be repainted too. It was an 8 hour experience. We had to unscrew the wood planks, dig out the old bridge, dig footers for the new bridge and paint it all.  It was a ton of work! Holman showed his true grit when he passed his board of review and was awarded the Eagle rank and he still went back to the facility to paint their logo on the bridge .

Well done son. I had know idea how much work an eagle project really is. Watching you jump over all those hurdles was truly impressive. I can see why this rank is well known even outside the scouting community. What a honor to be your mom!

Watershed Project 2019

The Tucson Watershed Project is one of Tucson's best kept secrets..You attend a class that talks about water harvesting and then you get rebates from the City of Tucson when you implement water harvesting projects. You can then help your neighbors with their water harvesting projects and "earn hours" for your neighbors to do a project at your house..Thanksgiving weekend we hosted "the gravy bowel" project at our house. 

We rented a tractor and got to work!

On a side project we took down our guest house fence that was falling apart. Robin, JC and Hillary helped us. It had rained a lot so it came apart like butter.

These newly created berms can hold a lot of desert rain!

All that water will now stay and soak into our property instead of running on by.