Zoo Action!

Nick, Nicholas, & Caroline enjoyed some "Zoo Action" on Sunday 2/17/08. Karen was working, so Nick grabbed up the kids, some snacks, some water, and the camera - and off we went to the Memphis Zoo!

We got some amazing shots, starting with this lion! He was most comfy...














We also snapped a neat shot of one of the orangutans, and the giraffe baby with the family.


























One of my favorites shots of the day came courtesy of the African Elephant. Amazing!















Here's a slide show of all the pictures taken today...be sure to check out the Pumas!

The C S Recorder Ensemble

We've posted many times how much we love the C S - here's just one more reason. During a recent family gathering (see earlier posts), Mrs. Susan Van Dyck's recorder ensemble played for the school.

There is a magic wand being waved in her classroom, and we can't wait until Nicholas gets to dig into music even more deeply in her class. Wait until she gets a hold of Caroline!

Our the School's Director, even mentioned that Dr. Holland would be looking forward to these young musicians joining his band at the UofM -

The City Championships

Last weekend, Nicholas' Trinity Cardinals (his 1st & 2nd grade basketball team) played in their first tournament ever. They won their quarterfinal game 24-16, and Nicholas score 10 points and had several rebounds. Later that day, they won their semifinal game 20-8, and advanced to the Championship game in their first tournament ever!

Here is Nicholas stroking his free throw at halftime to boost the lead -















Tonight, they held a 12-11 halftime lead, but ended up falling to St. Luke's 27-23. They fell behind 8 with 2 minutes left, but fought back valiantly to the end. Nicholas had 5 points, 3 rebounds, and 2 assists and played all but 1:30 of the game. What a warrior! All the Trinity Parents are EXTREMELY proud of our CARDINALS! And the competition better watch out - we'll be gunning for the title again next year!















LET'S GO CARDINALS! 2008 CITY RUNNER-UP!

Celebrating

I just have to take a few minutes to celebrate Nick. He is such an incredibly hard worker. He has the job of 3 people at UofM, leads worship once a month at church, leads our small group etc. etc. On top of all of this he has to find time to write articles (among other things) for promotion and tenure. Just this week we found out that he got his second article published! HIP HIP HOORAY!!!!! He has a couple others submitted for publication so if ya could please be praying.......This is so exciting for him and I thought I would share it with all of you!

Nicholas' Basketball Team

Keeping in the athletic tradition of his father (ha!), Nicholas is now in his 2nd year of professional basketball...Okay, so it's just church league, but he did sleep with a Carolina ball in his bed when he was a toddler!

His favorite sport is probably football, but a close second is definitely basketball (that's my boy!).

Here is a slide-show of his most recent game - he plays for the Trinity Cardinals (a baptist church not too far from our house), and he either plays point guard or wing on offense (the "1" or the "3"), and he typically defends the "4" or the "5" on defense (down-low on the blocks). He went to Memphis Tigers Coach John Calipari's camp last summer, and seems to have a natural feel for the game. Roy Williams - are you listening?

If he goes the football route, he'll probably be singing "Glory, Glory to Old Georgia"...

St. Marys, Georgia visit

The Holland Family Clan enjoyed a great visit to Karen's home in St. Marys Georgia over the Christmas/New Year Holiday. We left Memphis at 4:30 AM on Monday, 12/31, and made it to St. Marys, Georgia at about 7:00 PM that night. What a trek!
We thoroughly enjoyed visiting with Karen's Grandmother (Nicholas & Caroline's Great Grandmother!). We also enjoyed spending time with Grammy & Papa, and Aunt Theresa & her boys Logan and Ethan. We also got to visit a lot with Uncle Stan and Aunt Adrienne, along with niece Olivia, and we got to meet & squeeze for the first time nephew Benjamin! That was a special treat!

Here's a photo of Nicholas with his Great Grandmother - one we'll treasure always!


We enjoyed bowling with the whole Gang and shopping at "Spoiled Rotten", which is a must do anytime we are in St. Marys. We shopped at a "Steve & Barrys'" in Brunswick, GA, and made off with insane deals. We also enjoyed eating GREAT seafood at a fairly new place in town, along with Uncle Stan, Aunt Adrienne, niece Olivia, and nephew Benjamin. Yummy!

Finally, we got some INCREDIBLE family pictures with the cousins, Grammy, and with each other. Here's a slide show with all of our snaps from picture day on the waterfront and from the entire visit. On picture day, you'd never guess it was about 35 degrees outside! The family did their best icicle impersonations, except for Nick - the old polar bear was quite cozy! Oh, and by the way... GO DAWGS! Georgia-41, Hawaii-10!

God Bless Ya -

Christmas 2007

Christmas is always a magical time of year, and this year was especially so because of God's tremendous blessings on our family.

We enjoyed several days of rest, interrupted only slightly by Tiger Basketball games. We even had enough days off to make a quick trip to St. Marys, Georgia, to visit Karen's parents, her Grandmother, her brother Stan & his family, and her sister Theresa & her two boys. But that's a separate blog!

Here are some photos of just a couple of gifts the kids got, and some of the kids at church and here at home. We even included some of the whole family down on the St. Marys waterfront.

Praise God that born that day in the city of Bethlehem was a Savior, Christ the Lord!