Finished Product

Here's our beautiful tree. You can't even see the enormous whole that faces the back. Last year Benjamin got to put on the star so this year Austin got to. He did not see the significance of this, but had fun anyways.


.......Side note....my computer had a virus....it is fixed now and I have a lot to update (nothing too exciting just some really cute pictures)

Christmas Tree 2008 Part 4

Once I finished cutting through the tree trunk. I discovered something very disturbing about my dream tree. See below:

Right next to this "perfect tree" that I thought I had found had grown an unseen smaller Chistmas tree whose pine needles and branches made up about 40% of the green, fullness on one side of my perfect tree.

Of course, from the side where I started cutting the trunk I could not tell that there was another smaller trunk next to my "perfect" tree.

Once the cut tree was moved to the side, I was astonished and astounded at the same time to see that 40% of my tree was not there.

Good for us that where were were planning on placing the tree in our home, you can only see the good side of the tree ;-)

Christmas Tree 2008 Part 3

After Austin lost interest in cutting down the tree he decided to eat some dirt.

Christmas Tree 2008 Part 2

So once we found the tree, the boys and I started to cut it down.

Christmas Tree 2008

So this year we decided we'd go to a Christmas Tree farm and cut down our own tree with the boys. Good idea right? Right - sort of...

So we get to the tree farm and spend an hour or so looking over the various patches of douglas fir and noble fir trees.

We finally find a tree that has the right amount of fullness, but no too full (so that there is open spaces for the ornaments to hang). The right height, 7ft. - check. A good green color - check. We liked it so much we posed for an impromptu family picture. We were so proud of finding the perfect tree. See picture below:

My thoughts on the Presidential Election of 2008

My gut reaction is that I’m:

- depressed a candidate as liberal as BO was elected President of our amazing country;

- concerned about our economy and how BO’s new policies will affect it;- upset that our taxes will likely be increasing soon and there will be no end in sight to government spending and the ever increasing size of our federal government;

- concerned that our enemies abroad will now ramp up their plans and attempts to hurt America’s interests at home and abroad without serious fear of U.S. retaliation;

- bothered by the fact that we don’t know who really funded BO’s campaign;

- concerned about what type of Supreme Court justices he will appoint when the opportunity presents itself and the case they will decide ;

- concerned about what BO will do to our healthcare system.

All that being said, it is nice to see that an African American can be elected President of the United States. I only wish he was an African American more in the mold of Ronald Reagan and not Karl Marx.

Did I mention I’m a conservative?

May God Bless America, because we are really going to need it, especially over the next 4 years...

Say Cheese

The boys latest thing is sitting next to each other, looking adorable (and acting like they actually like each other) and saying cheese until I get the camera and take a picture of them.

And as you can see it always works. I just have hard time getting them to smile at the same time.

Why I'm Voting Yes on Proposition 8 - by Brian Thomas

Plain and simple – I believe marriage between a man and a woman is an institution ordained by God. And as such I think we should do everything in our power to protect it, and have government protect it through the democratic process. I believe that a child needs a father and a mother. I believe that the institution of marriage (as defined above) helps strengthen families and the children in those families.

In addition, I don’t want my state’s public schools legally permitted to indoctrinate my children with beliefs that run counter to my moral beliefs. I realize not everyone shares my same moral compass and that is fine. I’m voicing my humble opinion and I expect others on the other side, like you, to do the same.

Now to name a few of the other things that could happen if Proposition 8 is not passed:

1) As I mentioned earlier, I don’t want California schools to be teaching my children that gay-marriage as a moral equivalent to a marriage between a man and a woman, because I don’t believe that it is.

2) I don’t want California schools to begin instituting an aggressive policy of normalizing homosexual behavior to elementary school children and not allowing parents to be notified before or after, or being able to opt-out their kids from it. - See what’s happening in Massachusetts where the courts have already legalized same sex marriage - on April 27, 2005 David Parker was arrested and thrown in jail by school officials over his insistence of being notified regarding his son in kindergarten being taught about homosexual relationships by adults.

3) I don’t want pro-same sex school teachers legally permitted to subtly and not so subtly indoctrinate my kids with the gay agenda – see Massachusetts again where a teacher read a homosexual fairy tale to second graders.

4) I believe that if Proposition 8 is not passed that there is a much greater chance that the day could soon come that expressing one’s moral beliefs which do not condone the homosexual lifestyle could be considered “hate speech,” which would bring all kinds of potential legal ramifications, including but not limited to churches losing their tax-exempt status for failure to not grant the same rights and privileges to homosexuals.

5) Church charities will be forced to shut down adoption centers because they will not place children with same sex couples – See Massachusetts

6) Once the door is opened and it is determined that marriage can be redefined by judges, there is a greater chance that the definition of marriage will not stop there but will be expanded to include all kinds of unnatural combinations.

Those are some of the reasons I'm voting Yes on Proposition 8. But most importantly, as I mentioned above, I'm voting yes because marriage between a man and a woman is ordained by God. As such, I think marriage should be defined in only one way: as between a man and a woman.

Cute Thomas Cousins

These are all of the Thomas boy cousins. (Yes two are ours). We now live REALLY close to Brian's brother Jon and his family so we get to see Nolan a lot more now. My boys really love it. (and yes my boys have otten their hair cut since this picture)

T-Ball for a 3 year old...not recommended!

In our lovely new town of Dublin California they offer T-Ball for 3-5 year old children. We were so excited. Benjamin LOVES baseball. He has a Tee and a glove and has been playing with Brian for over a year now. We thought this was great. He will love it. WRONG. There is a reason "Little League" does not have T-Ball for children until they are 5. And that is because to a 3 year old it is really boring. Way too much down time. These are all pictures of his first game. It was HOT this morning and I put him in black sweats. And the league gave him the largest shirt they had so the poor boy was sweating the whole time. He even had an audience (Gma Cary, Gpa Dan, Gpa Brent and Uncles Tyler and Trevor) which he usually loves. And he requested that everyone shout "Go Ben" or "Way to go Ben" when he hits the ball. We all complied but this did not help. Here he is playing 1st base.

Here he is yelling "throw the ball HERE!!!"
Bored and playing in the dirt.
Finally his one chance at bat. He was so excited about the helmet. (He has some odd obsession with helmets. He has already requested he get a bike helmet for his birthday) He was the only kid to wear it. So the lesson learned is this. Three year old children should not play group sports. We will try again when he is five.
Austin had a great time though.

Facebook

Ok, so Brian has finally convinced me to get on facebook. I am still not sure what it is for, but I am giving it a go. Brian told me it is going to be my next obsession, but I am not convinced yet. I have not completely gotten into blogging (as you can tell) and I have been doing it for over a year. So we'll see. But I need a new picture, of this I am sure! I am usually taking the pictures so the only pictures I am in are the ones from Paris.

Sick Update

As you can see Austin is now fine. The only thing that remains is a cough every now and again. We still do not have any firm answers for what he really had. The Dr said if it happens again then they will put him on preventative meds. But for now we are being optimistic in our hopes that it will never happen again.......And I did not stage this picture. He did it all on his own. He loves the horse. Too CUTE!

Sick

It started out like this. A little guy with a cold and a cough. I should have known something was wrong because even when he is not feeling well he does not sit still. I actually thought it was cute and took a picture. I thought is was just another cold.
It ended up like this. A little guy in the hospital because he could not breath.
So all day Thursday Austin was not feeling well. He was really clingy and had a bad cough and was weasing. Around 4pm I called my Mom and put Austin on the phone to see what she thought of his wease. She said it did not sound good. I ignored her because, it was just a cold. Then at bed time I decided to call the "advice nurse". Her advice, "go to the emergency room immediately". So I found someone to watch Ben (luckily 95% of Brian's family live within 3 minutes of us) and called Brian who was still working at a client's office in SF and went to the ER. On the drive to the hospital I thought to myself.....Am I overreacting? When we arrived they quickly put us in a room and a DR came. Wow, I thought, this is the first time I have not had to wait......that should have been a clue. Well After hours in the ER, breathing treatments, steroids and x-rays. It was determined he has Restricted Airway Disease. WHAT IS THAT???? Well, it's exactly like asthma but it is not chronic......YET. He did have a cold that turned into bronchitis. And that caused his lungs go on lock down. They said this could happen every time he gets a cold or never again.

His oxygen levels were still too low so we got to stay the night. The Dr. thought we could go home in the morning......after a few minor setbacks we got to leave at 5pm the next day. Austin HATED it. He was so sick of people touching, pulling and holding him down that he would scream when a nurse or DR came near him. We are all home now doing breathing treatments every 4 hours around the clock (I feel like I have a newborn again). With DRs appointment's every other day. I am hoping to get more answers about what this really is on Monday. Is this Asthma and they are just hesitant to call it that? Why?

Preschool

Benjamin's first day of preschool was last week. He was so excited. He got dressed up in his new first day of school shirt and grabbed his snack and was ready to go.
When ever the camera comes out Austin strikes a pose.
When we got to school he got his name tag, which he was very excited about. Then he sat down and completely ignored us. He would not even look up to say goodbye. I thought I would be thrilled when he finally started some school but as I was driving away I was a little sad. I can't believe he is old enough to be in school.

Oakland Zoo

A couple of weeks ago Brian had the whole week off. Most of the week was spent painting and replacing all of the ugly, generic light fixtures in our place. But one day we got to go to the zoo.
We saw all of the major zoo animals. Elephants, lions, monkeys. We even almost go to feed the giraffe some leaves. But the zoo keeper got to us first......

Austin enjoyed climbing around on the frogs


The Oakland zoo is a little sad when we compare it to the Omaha zoo (oddly enough there is a GREAT zoo in Omaha). But Ben does not remember it and Austin has never seen it so they think Oakland is great.

Yummy

The other day Austin and Ben were dong a little coloring. Austin LOVES to color, but this time he decided to lick the marker. He looked so funny with purple lips and tongue that I had to take a picture.
And because he has recently decided he loves getting his picture taken he kept putting the marker in his mouth for more picture. He is such a ham!!

Rockin

Benjamin discovered the drum set in my parents garage the other day. He is quite a natural. It is amazing how he can pick up the drum sticks for the first time and know how to hit everything.
He does not appear to have any rhythm yet, but he looked really cool doing it.

All grown up.......?

So the other day Benjamin was having some yogurt and Austin decided he wanted to some too. I put him in his highchair and did not put a bib on him because I was going to feed him. But he decided he was way too big for his mommy to be feeding him. So after a few minutes of whining I let him have the spoon.......this is the end result. He is getting to be such a big boy these days. He no longer wants to be my baby. :( Although he is still fine with me carrying him everywhere (he is 30+ lbs). One step at a time, right?

Our Future Olympian

Last Wednesday was Benjamin's first swim lesson. He is taking them at a local indoor pool. It has been a strange summer here in CA. It started out really hot (In May!!!) and since has been in the 80's. Which is not hot enough for me or my children to get in an outdoor pool. So I found a place that is indoor and warm all year round. One of the rules is that the students have to wear goggles. So Ben picked these red one's out. I tried to convince him blue or green would look better, but he wanted red. His favorite color is red, much to his father's dismay (BYU is Blue and U of Utah is Red). This has been hard for Brian, but he has finally let it go and love him anyways :). He was so excited about swim class. There were three other kids in his class. All whom screamed their heads off the entire time. Ben did not even hesitate to get in.
Here he is "swimming".
"Floating"
At the end of class he received two ribbons. A pink one for waiting his turn and making the bubble face (holding his breath) and a rainbow one for not crying. He thinks he is ready to swim on his own now. The other day he said to me "Mama, I'm a big boy. I don't need a swim teacher anymore."

Still Alive.

It has been 3 weeks since the big move and we are all still alive. This move has really been the worst so far. I have moved quite a few times since we have been married, 5 times in almost 6 years to be exact. So one would think I would be a pro at it. But I still find it hard. I hate the chaos of the pre-post move. Boxes, disorganization. And it was hard on the boys because they did not like the chaos or my disposition. And this time we complicated things by selling all of our old furniture before we moved because my motto for our new place is "No Ugly". So that meant nothing could come. And we were so lucky because our place came partially furnished with new furniture. We moved in and discovered that most of the furniture that came with the place was not going to work. So we had to sell it too. The "bar height" kitchen table-very cute in our space but not functional for us shorties. The entertainment center was so low that every time Austin walked past it he would smash his hands on the screen of our new plasma TV. Had to go. And lastly the above couch. I did not like it that much (hard leather, modern design) but we were hoping it would work because it fit so well in our space. Well after living with it for 2 weeks we decided it was not working either. It is the most uncomfortable couch I have ever sat on! So we posted it on Craigslist and sold it in less than 24 hours for a ridiculous amount of money. I really did not think we would sell it for what we were asking and certainly not so fast. So here we are without a couch again. And yesterday we bought another couch (that should arrive in 2 to 3 weeks) that I am very excited about. We found a store that makes custom furniture. So we got a couch that is the same proportions but in a different style. I hope it turns out how it looks in my head. So this is where we are. We painted the family room, kitchen and all the halls. And Brian put closet organizers into the closets (fabulous). There were some days I would just go into the closet, because it was the only organized room in our house, to feel a little peace. Life is getting back to normal. We have been going to the neighborhood pool down the street and enjoying being so close to our family. Next week Benjamin starts swim lessons which should be fun. One day soon I will take better pictures and post them too.

Little Gym Graduation

This Spring Benjamin took a tumbling class at the local Little Gym. He loved it. He got to run around and jump on things and not get in trouble for it. At the end of the class they have "show" day where they show everyone what they have learned. It was very entertaining!
Here he is striking a pose on the beam. Not a skill taught but he certainly mastered it.
More beam work.

Flips on the bar

Summer salts.

His Thomas Grandparents came and so did his Dad. He LOVES and audience!
Cousins Chloe and Nolan came to watch too.

Awards time. He had a lot of fun, but I do not see a Gold metal in gymnastics in his future.

Still Moving

Well life has been crazy lately! We sold our kitchen table, couches, entertainment center and book shelves, (all on craigslist- Have I ever mentioned how much I LOVE craigslist?) so we are basically living like we are camping. And that is not all that enjoyable with two small kids. We are supposed to close escrow tomorrow, but that whole process has been a complete nightmare and I will not be surprised if that does not happen. But from what I hear that is normal. The boys and I just got back from LA visiting Jackie (I will post pictures later) where we all got the FLU. But life is good. Just busy.

Comfortable?

Does this look comfortable to anyone? This is how Austin likes to sleep. Sitting, hunched over with his face smashed into his blankie. He falls asleep like this because he likes to rock himself to sleep. He sits there and rocks back and forth. We had to move his crib away from the wall because we would hear, thud, thud, thud for 20 minutes whenever we put him to bed. We first noticed it when he was around 10 months old (He is now 16 months old). It really disturbs Brian. He is convinced Austin will have a bad back later in life because he sleeps like this. I think if it hurt him he would not do it. I am just so excited to finally get a picture of it. (He is an extremely light sleeper) So this is to our little rocker.....I hope you don't have back problems later in life!