letter to santa

this was handed to me with huge tears welling up in her eyes.
after she read it to me, the tears had spilled over, and her head was buried in my arms.
she's been pretty good the last few days.
she won't be getting coal.

this time of year...

...is crazy for us. it starts october 20th when chris celebrates his birthday. then comes november with lana's birthday, then ceily's birthday, then thanksgiving, then chris and i celebrate our anniversary (this year it was actually on thanksgiving.), christmas follows and then my birthday in january, eddie's birthday in february, finally ending with noah's birthday in march. i tend to get a bit overwhelmed. all the preparations for multiple big days makes my head whirl.


lana was kind to me this year and invited one friend (maren of course) to go to build a bear and lunch at the cheesecake factory. grandma jill and merry were in town too, so we had fun with them building stuffed animals and dressing them with silly apparel. (yes, merry built a bear too.)

she had aslo requested breakfast in bed. she got that and more.

birthday girls

ceily's 14th birthday landed on a sunday, and it was low key as well. (thank you ceily!)

the youth had a discussion here, so the house was filled with 20 or so boys and girls with adults scattered throughout. we sang happy birthday, cut some cake, and enjoyed presents.

chris and i celebrated our 16th!! anniversary with a wonderful dinner and a night alone. his mom had taken the children to spend the night. can't go wrong with that.

i was hoping this year's anniversary was the computer chip year. sort of want a laptop. but it turns out to be actually, silver. what i did find was a mirror. that broke. that is getting fixed. but when it's in my home, hanging on the wall, i'll be able to see my sparkling, silvery, reflection smiling back at me. perfect. chris got a bike helmet and a pass to the state parks for a year. (perfect. for him.)

last night we decorated our tree. the outside lights are strung, the stockings are hung. my shopping almost done.

it's feeling like christmas.

i like that.

remember our christmas tree last year?

i loved! loved! loved! it!! no one else did. to me it was perfect.

well this is what it looks like this year.

didn't quite make it through the summer. chris blames me. i blame the weather.
this year, once again, we purchased a plantable tree for our christmas tree.
this time we chose the blue spruce. complete opposite of last year.


hopefully next year it will be alive and not an added corpse to the thomas family tree plot.

thanksgiving

by lana

Thanksgiving is a wonderful holiday to take time and remember all the things to be thankful for. I am thankful for school because if we didn't have school we wouldn't be smart. So that's why I am thankful for school.

Next, I am thankful for clothing because if we didn't have clothing we would be NAKED! and that would just be wrong! So that's why I am thankful for clothing.

Then I am thankful for a house because if we didn't have a house we would be living on the streets.

the end

on november 23, at 10:53pm...

...my house is 75 degrees.
i would love to turn the ac on.
but won't.

happy birthday ceily!!

her favorite songs

lana's top two


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happy birthday lana lu!!

from this

to this

in 9 short years.
no more thumb sucking. (she stopped all by herself.)
no more training wheels.
no more baby dolls.

lots of hugs.
lots of friends.
lots of smiles.
lots of pictures stuck to the walls and windows in her room.
lots of giggles.

lots and lots of goodness, and beauty, and kindness and sooooo much more.

millions and billions of hugs and kisses to you lana lu!!

a concert story

my very first concert, that i chose to attend was Journey. yep, Journey. i actually wanted to go because bryan adams was opening for them. of course, bryan was sick that night, but i will admit, i enjoyed Journey. can't go wrong with a little oh, sherrie now and then.

i can also remember my parents taking us to see donny and marie and the osmonds at the capital center. we had box seats and it was AWESOME!!! because remember, we were related to them...

chris is way into music. played guitar in bands, formed his own band, dreams of a family rock band one day. so, we have seen some concerts together. it's fun. but i always hated the smoke and the sticky floor from spilled drinks and smelly bodies touching my not smelly body. i rejoiced at the fact that being pregnant did not allow me to attend. didn't want my baby near second hand smoke.

last week ceily's best friend begged her mom to buy tickets to see never shout never for ceily's birthday present. (thank you staci!!! you're the best.) ceily had been begging for weeks, even months to go to this concert. christopher drew is her dream boyfriend. he can 'do no wrong, is beautiful, perfect in every way and the best thing ever to live on this earth.' the day of the concert, gillian gave to ceily, the golden ticket! here are her facebook updates throughout the day and night:

OMYGOSH.
IMSOPUMPEDIMLIKEHYPERVENTILATING! 7:23am

GILLIAN STUCKI YOU ARE MY BEST FRIEND!
best birthday present ever (: 2:57pm

ONE HOUR UNTIL I GET TO SEE MY LoVE ON STAGE ♥ 5:25pm

me and Skye cried when christofer drew came on (:
aren't we the coolest
he came and sang with the first act (: 6:58pm

oh my goodness
next is the Maine.
THEN IT'S NEVER SHOUT NEVER 7:50pm

ILOVEHIMSOMUCH 9:14pm

OMYGOSH
BEST NIGHT OF MY LIFE
OH GOODNESS
ILOVENEVERSHOUTNEVERWITHSUCHABURNINGFIREYPASSION
ITS SO UNBELIEVEABLE! 10:25pm

my mom just said I just took you to that stupid christofer drew concert.
she has been disowned 10:37pm

the night was fun. ceily and gilli were giddy. the grill connected to the concert venue allows you to enter 15 minutes early if you spend money. they were panicking they were going to miss the entire concert, and not be able to see anything because our food was late in coming. they ate nothing but were successful in making it through the doors as the last two girls with seconds to spare.

waiting for a table

waiting for the food with panic building

this is the maine. not never shout never. they were the third band to play that night. staci and i were so excited never shout never had finally started. it wasn't until maybe 20 minutes into it, and i had taken lots and lots of pictures, even going downstairs to get closer shots, it was revealed to us that it wasn't christiopher drew at all. he was next. (we thought it was strange there were huge M's behind them. and his music sort of sounded different than what we thought we had listened to. and we thought the other guy playing guitar behind him was christopher drew, not this guy. we are old.)

if i had to choose a concert to attend as a 40 year old, this was a pretty good one. at least it wasn't too crazy. i actually like his music. it was very, very nice being in a smoke free venue. the only beer drinkers were the parents waiting for their non-driving middle school children.

after all was done, and christopher drew had left the stage for good, the girls found us and proclaimed their renewed love and adoration of the 19 year old, barefoot singing, peace proclaiming, love not war boy.

peace

love

and harmony

.the end.

question of the day...

...why is chick-fil-a sooo good?

randomness and baby blessings

the leaves are changing and the air is crisp. fall feels good.

lana and noah amused me as they posed for the camera.

on sunday we all gathered together to celebrate a new baby in the family. i'm so happy and thankful all these women are having babies. means i don't have to feel too bad about not having more. all 36 of us in one house. + 2 more in utero. yeah summer!!

eddie took advantage of the baby body heat moses generates and promptly fell asleep.


noah, sienna and lana were inseparable.

i can't get enough of luisa, but she will have nothing to do with me. only likes her mom, dad and sierra. (speaking of sierra...she was happy and willing to have ceily spend the night at her house, in her bed. until ceily woke them both with vomit. all over the bed, mattress, bodies. yuck.)

nico and lana enjoying a snuggle.

all because of moses robinson hafer.

from noah's mouth

noah is home today sick. these are a few highlights.

is that mega mind movie playing? can we go to a movie later?

will you take me to school?

will you take me to toys r us? we have a $10 coupon.

remember you said orange juice was good for me when i was sick?

mom, where's the remote?

i really need your phone.

you said you would make me lunch now.

me: do you like staying home sick or do you wish you were at school?

noah: i like staying home. it's fun.

will you take me to dairy queen?

i need a coke.

halloween 2010

i remember one halloween i dressed as a little old lady. i wore a gray wig, a crocheted shawl, used my dad's cane, and walked with a humped back. the very first house i walked to with my little sister didn't hand me any candy. i was too shy to say i was really a child dressed as an old grandmother taking her granddaughter trick-or-treating. another year i dressed as a ghost. didn't need a wig this time. just brushed my hair into a HUGE afro and poured baby powder into it to make it look ghost-ly. everyone commented on my awesome wig. that year i was still too shy to say it was my real hair.

this year, my hair has some patches of gray. all real too. i guess i'm getting closer to the little old lady of years ago.

didn't dress up. just enjoyed the choices my children made.

the best part was little sarah. she has no say, hence...

...a little vampire baby.

and a little pumpkin baby. she wasn't happy, but it made us happy.
i love it when they are helpless and have no say in what they are dressed as. pumpkin body or vampire mouth...it's all about the parents.

but then they grow up and begin to talk and express opinions and want to be scary swamp monsters like noah was this year. he enjoys the gross.

noah with his bestie gavin

lana chose the vampire girl. didn't want a pale face or fangs. just the black finger nails.

lana taking a little bite from her bestie maren.

ceily had talked eddie into being bella from twilight. she was dressing like edward and gillian was dressing up as jacob. two girls like boys and one boy like a girl. it all worked. everyone loved it. but come the real halloween night, eddie chose to be a fat lady again. added a wig this year. he won best costume at the party. i have to agree. it's a great costume.

ceily chose to exaggerate edward. just a little. there's a bit of sparkle if you look close enough.

ceily and her bestie gillian as jacob and edward

the whole gang

the cute bumble bee

i'll admit. at first, whenever eddie or ceily would talk about what costume they wanted, my reply was always: "aren't you too old to trick-or-treat this year? why do you need a new coustume? just stay home with me and answer the door. we'll watch scary movies all night. " they NEVER agreed. and finally i agreed. it's fun to dress up. to pretend to be someone or something different for a bit. the candy doesn't hurt either. i'm already talking to noah about being the swamp creature again. it will fit. maybe eddie will even wear the fat ballerina three years in a row. i'll cross my fingers.

i heart my iphone because.....

...of this


...and this


...and this


...and this


...and this


...and this


...and this


...and this


...and this


...and especially this.