The Holland Family: 2011 Year in Review

January - We rang in 2011 with some of our Home Team friends from church. It was crazy good times and I wish I had taken pics or even some video.

Henry had his first haircut on January 8th. http://mlholland.blogspot.com/2011/01/hanks-first-haircut.html

February - Henry had surgery to put tubes in his ears. The tubes were the solution to his chronic ear infections. The procedure was quick and easy and we were all back home for naps by mid-morning.

March - we celebrated Henry's 1st birthday. His party was at a local park where lots of friends and family came out to celebrate with us. He didn't really enjoy the cake like I had hoped, but he still had a great time being the center of attention.

April - we threw a surprise party for Ruby's 60th birthday, complete with a live Elvis performer. The party was a hit and everyone had a great time.

May - Henry started the month off right by learning how to walk! We were so excited to watch him get so excited and learn this new skill. At first, he walked like Frankenstein with his arms straight out in front of him, but before we knew it, he was running all over the place.

June - nothing big to note this month, although this is probably a good place to note that we survived one of the hottest summers on record in Texas. We had somewhere around 70 something days with temps over 100 degrees with drought conditions. It was a miserable summer, too hot to be outside. I'm already praying we don't have another summer like that anytime soon.

July - this was a really hard month in the Holland house. Eileen, our sweet 3-legged baby girl started having seizures in June. We took her to the vet and after several blood tests and surgery, was diagnosed with insulinoma. Basically her pancreas was eating her insulin instead of her body absorbing it for sugar regulation. Our vet has been in medicine since 1980 and had never operated on a dog with insulinoma. It's fairly common in ferrets, but extremely rare in dogs. After the surgery, we were told we may have about a year, but only time would tell.

August - after 4 weeks, Eileen's prognosis was slim. She began seizing again and her glucose levels were dangerously out of whack. On August 11th, we were forced to make the toughest decision, it was time to let Eileen go to the Rainbow Bridge. The pain was difficult and there isn't a day we don't talk about or think about our sweet Sister Girl. http://mlholland.blogspot.com/2011/08/eileen.html

We did however know that we wanted to add another furry member to our family. Home just isn't home without a puppy dog in the house. We talked about possibly adopting a Boston Terrier, but I have so much experience with Boxers and just couldn't imagine not having a Boxer in the house. We contacted LBR, the same group we adopted Eileen from, and they put us in contact with a few different foster families. We met Kiki on August 27th and I instantly fell in love. She has a fantastic under-bite, a sweet and loving personality and is a very mature lady. She even has the same white marking on the back of her head that reminded me of our precious Eileen. Of course there was some transition challenges and schedule changes, Kiki was used to being at home with her foster mom who worked from home. She had to adjust to our routine and not having any other dogs around for company. She did great during the transition though and has made herself a part of our family. She loves to be lazy but also enjoys playing with her stuffies and sometimes Henry's stuffies too. :) http://mlholland.blogspot.com/2011_09_01_archive.html

September - we revamped our flower bed and did a few outdoor projects as the temps finally dropped below 100 degrees, well some days were in the 90s anyway. http://mlholland.blogspot.com/2011/10/pics-and-quick-summary.html

October - Halloween galore. Henry was Charlie Brown this year. Oh and Mama was dressed up as an Oompa Loompa for a work party. For a Mama that isn't a huge fan of Halloween, we always manage to busy up the days leading up to Halloween. We had our company trick or treat, a family Halloween block party and then our church Trunk or Treat all within 4 days.

November - we spent the month getting ready for the holidays and enjoying more family time in the evenings. Most weekends included lots of time with our extended families which is always nice.

December - I was able to check something off my bucket list; I ran (and walked) a half marathon. It was cold and raining that day but I did it and to me, that's all that matters. Mike, my parents and Nikki were near the finish line, rooting me on. It was awesome having their support, especially knowing they stood in the rain for 2 hours waiting on me to finish.

In the midst of all of the holiday preparation, we scheduled Henry's eye surgery to correct his misdirected eyelashes. The doctor said the procedure went smoothly and his recovery was a breeze. http://mlholland.blogspot.com/2011/12/henry-surgery-1220.html

Four days later, we celebrated the birth of Jesus with our family.