Merry Christmas

Well it's that time of year again, when I dust off the old blog and actually post something. 2011 was another fun year for us. Ben is now 6 (close to 7) and Austin is 4 (even closer to 5) Brian and I are also one year older but I will let you guess the exact number. Ben started 1st grade and is loving it. He is a full fledged reader now. It amazes me how quickly they get it. This year Austin has really improved his self taught beatboxing skills. I love it when he beatboxes and break dances (also self taught) at the same time. This year Ben was old enough to play on his first baseball (T-Ball) team. He was a great hitter and enjoyed the status of being the only true lefty on the team.


In January Brian got a new job. He now works for PWC in mergers and acquisitions. Changing firms can be challenging. Getting to know all the new personalities. But Brian now has them all figured out and is enjoying himself. We got to do a lot of fun things this year. This summer we took the plunge and went camping for 4 nights with almost the entire Thomas clan. We stayed on a lake and spent our days jet skiing. We had a great time. We also went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium for the first time (boy's 1st time). It was pretty cool. But maybe a little over priced.

The school year started with a bang for Ben, actually it was more of a crack, crack. On the 3rd day of school he fell of the monkey bars and broke two bones in his arm on the same day as our 9th anniversary. It is an anniversary I will never forget. The next morning he had to have surgery to have pins put in to set the bone. He had to wear a cast for 7 weeks. Just long enough to not get to play soccer.

Austin got to play on his first soccer team. He absolutely loved it. It did not matter which goal was his team's, he was excited to get the ball in any goal. He was known for his goofing off during the game. At the season end party he won the award for the best cartwheels during a game. Always entertaining as usual. (not sure why this is underlined but since I blog about once a year I am not going to figure out why.)

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving in Lake Tahoe this year. Brian had a great time taking scenic pictures and I enjoyed learning how to make a quilt with a true expert (Brian's Mom).


We hope all is well with you and we wish you a very Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

It is hard to believe 2010 is almost over. It has been an exciting year filled with lots of firsts. Benjamin is now 5 (6 in March) and Austin is 3 (4 in January). They are finally at the age where they play well with each other. They both learned how to swim this summer and have become little fish. I really enjoyed this because for the first time in 8 years I got a tan. A lame accomplishment, I know, but I really did enjoy it. Benjamin also started Kindergarten this fall and absolutely loves it. He is in a combination kindergarten & 1st grade class and is already doing 1st grade math. His only complaint is that the 1st graders get to stay at school longer. Austin also had a big first, he started preschool. So two days a week for 2 ½ hours I am kid free. I love it! I mostly use the time to clean because cleaning without the boys making a mess somewhere else in the house seems like a luxury at this point in my life. But sometimes I just sit on the couch and watch Regis & Kelly or read a book. Austin was so excited to finally get to be the one who go to go to school he did not even look back to say goodbye. We went on our first family camping trip this summer and had a good time. Maybe we will try more than 1 night in 2011. We also went on our first official family vacation. One whole week in southern California. We went to the beach and to Sea World and of course Disneyland. The boys were actually big enough to ride everything, we had a great time. We can tell the economy is picking up because Brian was pretty busy with work this year. He is still working for KPMG and was promoted to Manager. But as of January 4, 2011 he will be changing to Price Waterhouse Cooper working in their mergers and acquisitions group. He is very excited about this new opportunity. We really did have a great year and feel very blessed for all of the things we have. We hope your 2010 was a fun as ours. Merry Christmas!!

Melissa this is for you......

Here is one of the family trees that I made as a gift for Christmas. Clearly the picture is not the best. I had every intention of taking better pictures in the day light.....but I forgot....and now they are wrapped.

But I do love the way they all turned out. It is the gift I am most excited about giving.....I hope my mother-in-law likes it. And as much as I would like to pretend I was the creative person who thought of this I cannot. My friend, Shauna, made these for her family a while ago and I decided to copy it. And it is really easy. I made it in Word using Word art to manipulate the "branches" . Actually Shauna made it in Word and just emailed me the one she made and I changed the info to our family.

It has the full names of everyone (maiden names for girls) along with their birth dates. I printed it on vellum paper and put a decorative paper behind it. Put it in a nice frame ($7.50 at Michael's 50% off) And Viola a neat gift.

I love Christmas. I love Christmas. I love Chritsmas...

I have to keep reminding myself that I DO LOVE Christmas. I was so excited when Thanksgiving was over. We immediately got our Christmas tree (it has to be real-love the smell) and decorated our house. Oh I loved it. And now 9 DAYS away from Christmas I am not sure why. For some reason I decided to make 15 presents by hand this year. What was I thinking....well I was not thinking at all. There are 3 different projects, pajama pants (even though I am not an experienced sewer), Snowman crayons ( I had to peel 168 covers off), and my favorite and by far the most attractive 2 family trees (super cool, I will have to take a picture and post it) and when I decided to make them I did not think "O maybe not a good idea since you are making so much already". NOPE. So here I am again 9 days away from Christmas and I have done nothing for the pajama pants except buy the flannel, and have not attempted to melt any crayons, the family trees I am actually almost done with but they were the easiest. And then the CHRISTMAS CARDS. Every year I HATE them and every year I do them. In a effort to look cute I got us all coordinating outfits. We got all done up and for 1 1/2 hours we took pictures (Brian has turned into the Nazi photographer...but that is for another time). None of which actually turned out well. The picture we are sending has to be in black and white because the color looks funny. So you cannot tell we have coordinating outfits on. And Brian and I are the only ones who look decent. And out of the 4 of us Ben and Austin are by far the cutest part of the family. So below are some of the pictures that will not be on the Christmas card because they would not fit. See the are pretty CUTE! But you won't be able to tell that from our card...o-well. So it is here and now that I have decided to stop stressing. So what if the cards are going out late? So what if I accidentally put the return address label where the stamp goes on all of the envelopes? So what if the family letter does not have anything to say about me because all I did this year was try to survive? Well I did and I am HAPPY it is Christmas time. REALLY.

TIRED....

....of genes that fit in the morning but by noon could fall off. Tired of pulling them up! Tired of cleaning up cutie peals (little oranges) because the boys can peel them themselves and they do anywhere and everywhere. Tired of my wedding ring flopping around on my finger because the cold has shrunk my finger. Tired of looking for my wedding ring because I have taken it off somewhere. Tired of being cold. 72 Degrees in the house should be warm enough right?

Don't get me wrong. Life is good. Just needed to get it out.

Day at the BEACH

We got to the beach in at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk
They touched to water

Austin decided to sit it out

Ben loved it

Brian convinced Austin it was fun

SHARK!!!!!
(Not really)

And we ended the day with some strange flavored ice cream

A good day at the beach

Waste of time??

Cleaning your house while your kids are still growing is like shoveling the walk before it stops snowing.-- Phyllis Diller

AMEN

Now that I have been feeling better I have been trying to catch up on all of the house cleaning that I had been ignoring but..... we are not naturally clean people. Not to say that we are gross and smelly (although I did find 3 rotting apples under the couch thanks to my boys). We just don't put things away, we come in and drop everything. So I feel like I am cleaning & cleaning & cleaning the same things over & over again. And it is taking up ALL of my time and energy. But now that I am obsessed I am extremely frustrated.

I know some people have a system that works for them.

• Clean on Mondays
• Do one big chore a day
• etc.

But I do not see how these systems can work. If I only clean on Monday it would be a mess the rest of the week. If I only did one chore a day it would always look as if I had done nothing at all.

So I am asking for HELP . Does anyone have some advice or words of wisdom that would make this process easier? Because I want a clean house but I also want some free time. Is that too much to ask?

Hello

I can't remember where I was when this happened. But the story I got was, Ben colored on Austin's face....so Austin did the same to Ben

Brian opening his favorite Christmas present ever. (I got it for him and me)
Benjamin's stuffed animal graveyard

I'M BACK! It has been awhile I know, but I am returning to the blog world. We have had a strange 6 months, my insomnia caught up with me and I began to feel a little crazy. I developed a thyroid tumor that could be cancer (still don't know). And my Dr. discovered I have sleep apnea. Seriously it has not been a fun 6 months for our family. But after tons of different medications (all of which made me sick or did nothing), biopsies, ultrasounds, blood tests, and sleep studies (by far the worst) I am feeling like myself again.

As I was beginning to write this I thought "Oh I should look to see what cute pictures I have on my camera". And after looking.....not many. For Christmas Brian got a fancy new camera (It was a great surprise and he said it was the best Christmas present he has ever received) and he is now the designated family photographer. So he downloads the pictures on to his computer which he always has with him....One day I will get them. But hey, I do need to pace myself. (I has been months since I blogged) So here are some of the random pictures on my neglected camera

It has been so long since I blogged that I put the pictures first.HAha. o-well.

My 1/22/07 Account of Austin's Birthday

As today is Austin's 2nd B-Day, I thought I'd recount the day of his birth as it was a bit of a miracle in my book...

On Monday, January 22, 2007, we were blessed with our newest addition to our family, Austin Henry Thomas. He weighed in at 8 pounds 2.4 ounces and measured 20.5 inches long. He has straight dark brown hair.

We were truly blessed with this birth as little Austin was literally in a "life or death" situation as he was transitioning to this world.

Corinne awakened me at approximately 4:40am Monday morning telling me she was in labor and that her contractions had started about an hour earlier. When she woke me her contractions were about 15 minutes apart. Corinne showered and did her hair. I also showered. We called grandma Wilma to inform her we needed her to come out and watch Benjamin while we went to Washington Hospital in Fremont, CA.

Our memories are already beginning to fade. But when I originally called my mom I told her the contractions were 15mins. apart. She at first thought she had some time to shower and prepare grandpa's lunch. However, Corinne quickly went from 15mins to 5mins apart. I called my mom and told her she needed to leave ASAP! It took her to about 35mins to get here and we got to the hospital.

It think it took us about 20-25 minutes to get to the hospital. I think we got to the hospital around 6:15-6:30am. They checked Corinne and she was at 3cm. They had her hooked up to monitor her and the baby's heart rate. Corinne said that she didn't remember the contractions hurting this much last time. At the next check she was about 6-7cms. Since Corinne's water had not yet broken the doctor decided to break it for her.

Both the doctor and nurse were amazed at how much water was insider Corinne. A few minutes passed as they clean up, but the nurse quickly discovered that something was not right. Corinne looked at me with a very worried look on her face and mouthed "something is wrong!"
Apparently, right after the water was broke, Austin's blood pressure dropped drastically. Within minutes the doctor and nurses were literally racing Corinne on her bed down the hallway towards the operating room for an emergency c-section. Unbeknownst to me at the time, as Dr. Siobhan Calhoun was wheeling Corinne to the OR she had her hand up Corinne and was trying to keep the baby in its place.

Apparently, Austin had developed a short umbilical cord which was wrapped around his little neck like a loose fitting noose. While he was suspended in the watery cocoon that was Corinne's uterus, he was just fine-the cord was loose around his neck. However, once the water was broken and the uterus collapse around Austin, apparently the umbilical cord either tightened and caused his blood pressure to drop drastically. This tightening was worsened by the fact that with the loss of the water Austin had moved farther south which increased the tightness around his neck.

From the time the nurse discovered something was wrong, until the time Austin was pulled from his mother's womb, literally not more than 5 minutes seemed to pass. However, I think they were the longest and most terrifying few minutes of my life. I had no idea what was going wrong. Corinne's pregnancy had progressed very well-no complications.

Corinne was placed under general anesthetic because that is the quickest acting stuff. I was not allowed in the operating room. I stood out side the doors and could barely see a couple of the doctors and nurses shoulders and heads as they stood around Corinne.

As I stood outside, I prayed. I prayed that Corinne and the baby would come out of there fine. I prayed that the doctors would know what to do to help them both. I called my mom frantic telling her to start praying because they had taken Corinne in for an emergency c-section, because the baby's blood pressure had dropped drastically once they broke the water. I called the Prices and told Dan that Cary needed to hurry (she was in the shower) to the hospital because Corinne was in an emergency c-section.

Not more than 2 minutes passed from the time Corinne was wheeled into the OR until Austin was pulled out - but it felt a lot longer than that. From my position. I could see them pull Austin out screaming. I could also seem them pulling out bloody gook from Corinne. Shortly there after the nurse brought Austin to me and I got to hold him. They told me he was doing great. They also said that Corinne was fine.

After the doctor finished sewing up/stapling Corinne, she came into the recovery room to do some paperwork. I commented to her that it sure didn't take long to get him out. She told me that normally the whole procedure takes about 2o minutes. However, that this situation was life or death for the baby and that that was why they worked so quickly.

Later when the doctor came to Corinne's room to check on her and the baby, I asked if there was any chance the baby had suffered any kind of damage from the loss of blood pressure. She told me no, that baby's can apparently go close to 18mins under such circumstances without causing brain damage. We were very happy to hear that.

Austin looked perfect. Needless to say were were truly blessed throughout this whole experience. We were blessed Corinne's water did not break at home, because it is very unlikely we would have known anything could be wrong with the baby and it is very unlikely that we would have gotten to the hospital in 18mins. Austin could have easily died or suffered severe brain damage had Corinne's water broken at home. We were blessed that the nurse noticed so quickly that something was wrong and we were blessed that the doctor acted so quickly and so proficiently.

Needless to say, I'm never going to forget this experience and how blessed were truly were.

Still alive......

Yes I have been a very bad blogger lately. It's funny because as I am falling asleep I frequently write an entry in my mind. But as you can see they never make it to the blog. Life has been crazy since before Thanksgiving. I will blog about it soon.

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.