Jay Jay the Toad eating a worm

Videos of Holden doing flips

Holden is really proud of his ability to do flips on the used trampoline we bought last month. Soon he will be landing on his feet. We watched some youtube videos on how to do these. So he asked me to make a video of him doing these flips so other people could be inspired. The sound quality stinks because of the background noise. The barking dog is at a house behind ours. You can see our dog, Shadow trying to peek over at that dog.

Enjoy!

~Heather

Me and my gang

This is me with some friends at Raccoon River by Walnut Woods State Park. We were looking for toads by the river and then there are a few photos of us on our way back out of the woods. We had a lot of fun!

Things I want to learn, do, or own before I am 9 years old

I have over a year before I am 9. Here's my list:
Machinima film making
Electric Guitar lessons
Fencing lessons
Go to Adventureland
Wii game system
Walkie Talkie set
A watch
A cat and hamster

Never a dull moment in Montana

Our day was pretty fun. We were going to go fishing, but we were up late last night and Holden slept till 11:30 today. Then Camden took a rare nap at 3pm. So we rode bikes around the neighborhood, went to see baby chics, saw some deer in a field, played WoW, ate and ate, played with the turtle, laundry, hung out with cool neighbor girl, fed horses across the street every few hours, went up the hill to the school playground, played with the cat, ordered a/c part, and various other things.

We're excited about being here and having a good time with our friends. They had to work today, but we had fun with them after work. If we're really lucky we're going to a 10,000 acre ranch near here to visit friends at the end of the week.

On our way here from Washington we saw an Eagle's nest and the views through the mountain pass were awesome. It was almost like the Grand Canyon. I can't even imagine what Yellowstone will be like.

All our best. We are going to sleep. I'll edit this in the morning.

~Heather
xoxoxo

Starfish

We're having a really awesome time traveling around the NW U.S. We saw some really huge starfish in Burien, Wa. We went to an conference called LIFE is Good and I had the BEST time! I hope we can go back next year. I really like my life. We saw an aunt (Tammy) I hadn't seen in a long time. Now we are in MT and will be heading to Yellowstone National Park. I miss my dog, Shadow. All is well though.

Holden

My WoW schooling

My mom took these photos. My friends and I, or my brother and I spend a lot of time mastering the game. It is more fun than you can imagine. Sometimes I have to write names down so I can log off a toon to send money to them from another toon. I can't always remember how to spell out names from memory. But my mom is impressed with my handwriting, considering we don't spend much time writing at this stage or age.

I wrote down a toon name, Lirn, the other day and my mom loves the way I wrote it! It is on the back of a Valentine card I got from a friend. She loves my writing. I'm picking up on upper case and lower case translations very easily. When I play WoW I have to know what the upper case letter looks like on the keyboard, because names and places are written with the first letter in caps and the rest in lower case.

I know all my numbers and how to type them in. My friend in the photo was not able to play the game for a few weeks and now he is able to play it again. His mom realized how important the game is to him and how much he is learning. His reading and writing has improved a lot since playing the game. He goes to school too. His mom and dad are school teachers for a living.

I love my WoW schooling time!

Holden

One of my WoW toons and pets

This is one of my World of Warcraft toons. It is a level 56 hunter. I have a rider and a pet tiger plus a companion cat. I am really lucky to have parents who see all the benefits of gaming. This game is for teens, but my parents play with me and we have a lot of fun together. I have friends on WoW as well. My life is pretty awesome, and I know it.

New toons...no problem

Every few days I like to make new toons on World of Warcraft. And now that we figured out how to grant levels to our first WoW account from our second WoW account, it is even better than ever! Sometimes my mom gets frustrated, but she sees how interesting this is for me and doesn't complain. I still have my higher level toons, but I have been so excited with my Druid and Priest classes lately that I hardly play on my higher level hunter and death knight. Camden and I both love to help each other with our new characters. We love picking our new toons and what they will look like and what type of weapons or powers we want with our new toons. It is beyond cool and entertaining. Our dad loves to play on his death knight and that is so awesome for him. He is on a guild and loves going to dungeons.

Our friends love to come over and watch us. Some of them play with us. It is hard to take turns, but we manage. One of our friends can't play with us anymore. He is 8 1/2 and his mom says he has to wait until he is 10. My friend is very sad about that. But he knows better than to question his mom and dad. They aren't like my parents about gaming and don't understand all that can be learned with gaming. I have learned more gaming than I ever would have learned from boring school books and it is effortless for me.

I am so happy because I have a really fun life. I do more than play WoW, but right now this is what I am passionate about. I hug my mom all the time for understanding me and honoring my passions. I know it is something she takes very seriously. My mom loves me and cares about. She does A LOT of research and she is 100% sure she knows what she is doing. She is a really caring and loving mom. She helps me when I need it. And she is always telling me how proud she is of me and how smart I am. I know I'm loved. And she is loved too. She knows it too. I give her lots of hugs and smiles. I tell her how much I like spending time with her. We have a decent relationship. I tell her when I think she is out of line and vise versa.

I wish all my friends had a mom and dad like mine. Not that their parents are terrible. But their parents can make like harder and more frustrating than it needs to be. It is so hard to explain. Maybe when I'm older it will make more sense. I feel like a little Buda and I am the master of my own happiness. My parents don't try to control me. They are guides for me. And they try not to act like they know everything. I'm thankful I have parents who trust me and trust themselves.

May the force be with you,
Holden