Saturday, December 27, 2008

Christmas Pictures

We had a such a good time on Christmas that I didn't take as many pictures as I thought I had. Robb and Reba have a lot more on their blog as well.


Thomas decided that we had too many presents to open. Exhausting :) Seriously, I thought this picture summed it up the best - we were all in the room laughing and opening of gifts and Thomas took a little snooze.

Thomas decided that Christmas would be the right day to start sitting up. He was on Josh's lap and he just leaned forward to grab something in front of him. Above, he is enjoying a gift that his cousin, Jacob gave him - a Kindergarten workbook. While it was a little over his head, Thomas enjoyed the pictures and was pointing at them and trying to turn the pages of the book.


In honor of my grandmother, I took this picture of the table on Christmas Eve. She always took a picture of the table before we sat down to eat on holidays. She passed away in June and I really missed her this Christmas. She loved the holidays and always gave us many gifts, from cool flashlights to socks and scarves and gloves. She really wanted to make it special for us every year. We got to spend some time talking about her on Christmas and it was nice to remember all the great things about her.


Thomas loves his Aunt Hannah.

He really loves all of his family. We are very blessed to have some many great people in our lives. We were able to see both my family and Josh's family on Christmas day. I was afraid that it was going to be hard for Thomas to have so much stimulation in one day, but he did really well. He has started going to sleep a little earlier at night - between 8:30 and 10 and sleeping until 5 or 5:30. We are really enjoying the extra sleep - just in time for me to go back to work. I have one more week of maternity leave.

At the beginning of my leave, I couldn't imagine going back to work. Now it doesn't seem as crazy. Josh is such a great dad and Thomas loves hanging out with him. I will miss them both all day long, but it is cool to know that they will be together.

Hope you all had a great Christmas!

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

We haven't taken that many pictures in the last couple of days as we have been getting everything ready for Christmas. We will have some cute pics over the next couple of days. We are planning on going to church today - as long as it doesn't get canceled. We woke up this morning to more snow - and it is still falling. My boy is napping a little - he gets grumpy when he doesn't get enough sleep.

Yesterday we made it into town to do some last minute shopping. We met up with my parents and my sister and her boys for lunch. We though we had timed it right, but Thomas had a total meltdown at Wendy's. He was so tired he did not know what to do. Josh was able to rock him to sleep and he napped for 3 hours. He has started taking one long afternoon nap - and when he does he is usually pretty happy afterward.

Then, we went to the Canfield's for dinner. They have a long, crazy driveway and we drove up from the bottom of the hill rather than try to slide down from the top. We got about half way up the hill and then lost it. Mike came down to help and he and Josh put the chains on the truck. We backed up and took another run at the hill and made it up. Josh is a really good driver in the snow and we are grateful that we have a 4WD. I bought chains for the truck several years ago and we have never used them - even on trips up to the mountains in the snow, but we have made great use out of them over the last couple of days.

We will be busy with family for the next two days, but before it all starts, I wanted to take a minute to say - Merry Christmas everybody! Hope you all have a wonderful couple of days with loved ones!

Sunday, December 21, 2008

Snow Pictures

It still hasn't stopped snowing, but before it gets dark I wanted to take some pictures. This picture shows how much snow we have.

The cats love to sit at the window and watch the snow fall. I think they are also fascinated by the birds that have been hanging out in our backyard.

Thomas loves the snow. He watches out the window with great fascination.

They even canceled church today

Overnight we got another 8 inches of snow and it is still snowing. This morning we had that really fine snow and I was trying to tell if it was really rain, but it is now snow - the pretty, flaky kind. We managed to get out yesterday during a break in the weather. We went out to lunch, to Target and to Albertsons. We had eaten most of the meat in our house and I knew we were going to get a bunch more snow today so we bought more food. Of course we took the Explorer and put the chains in the back just in case.

Since we started attending, our church has never canceled due to snow, but today they called it off. We even came out here one time and turned around because we couldn't get down the driveway and there was still church on that day.

We might be able to get out if we put chains, but I'm thinking we will just stay here. No need to try to get down the hill unless we really need something.

I made that list of things we have been doing in the last post and forgot to say that we have also been playing a lot of games. So, for today I will leave you with a list of all the games we are playing:

Board games:
1. Settlers of Catan (this is a Canfield family favorite and once I learned to play, we bought it for my parents as well and now we all play).
2. Scrabble
3. Carcasonne
4. Boggle (well, we plan to play today)

Wii:
1. Wii Fit (we have to get some activity to work off the pounds)
2. Donkey Kong (downloaded on the Wii - classic DK from the 80's)
3. Super Mario (see above)
4. Excite Truck
5. Dance Dance Revolution

I'll take pictures later today to show the depth of snow!

Friday, December 19, 2008

What we have been doing while snowed in

1. Knitting (Sarah)
2. Working our way through our food stores (it's a good thing I go to the grocery store all the time and we have a fully stocked freezer/pantry/fridge)
3. Playing Wurdle (highly addictive iPhone game. I keep stealing Josh's phone to play.)
4. Watching news coverage of cars on the side of the road
5. Watching TV (Netflix is now available on Tivo!)
6. Enjoying the fire (We have not been able to make it work since we moved in and Josh figured out how to fix it yesterday - yay! We now have a little more warmth in the living room.)
7. Drinking tea and coffee and other hot drinks
8. Napping (mostly Thomas)
9. Playing with Thomas

Hope everyone is staying warm!

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Family Photo

After I posted last night, we set up the camera to take this family photo. Thomas is getting dedicated at church this weekend and we needed a picture of the three of us together. It is amazing that we didn't have one yet.

We are having a mellow at home day and Thomas has been very snoozy. I have had a lot of time to work on my knitting and I just finished one of my balls of yarn and need to switch to a new one, so I thought it would be the perfect time to post this picture. I have about 3 knitting projects going and I hope to get some of them finished before I go back to work. I really need to finish the slippers I started for Josh. Now that he is home all day and it is so cold outside, he will actually get a chance to wear them.

Thomas is stirring - time to eat!

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Thomas has definitely found his finger. He can also now reach out and grab things - although he is still working on exactly where the object is. I could swear that he was waving at me today. I was filling up the car with gas and waving to him from outside the window and he waved in response. I know, I know, he can't really wave this early, but it was the cutest thing.

Josh has been working during the day so Thomas and I try to get out of the house a little to avoid distracting him. Yesterday we met up with Noah and Rebecca. Thomas loves his cousin as you can see from the picture below.


My boy is definitely interacting with toys now. Josh's friends James and Anand came over two Saturdays ago and James brought the Tiger in the picture below. Thomas loves it. He will play with it and pull on the ring and then try to put the Tiger's ears in his mouth. He is definitely starting to chew on things. The other toy he loves is the Winnie the Pooh rattle in the picture above. He holds on to it like a security blanket.

Right now, Thomas is hanging out with his dad. He has had a mellow day - taking one very long nap (3.5 hours) and another short one a little while ago. Most of the time now he is sleeping for a 6-8 hour stretch at night, so we are feeling a little more rested. Still loving all this time we get to spend together and savoring our last few weeks before I go back to work.

Friday, December 12, 2008

Winter

I've been going through all the photos we have of Thomas and printing some to hang on our walls. The one above is from our day of Christmas tree hunting. It is the perfect little picture of Thomas. Josh is really good at getting the right shots of him. He actually took this one on his iPhone. I now have a bunch of pictures in frames for us to hang up.

Yesterday I started wrapping Christmas presents. I wanted to get a jump start on it so that I don't end up wrapping them all at the last minute. I am a very traditional wrapper - just paper, ribbon, bow - but Josh is way more creative. He doesn't like it if you can tell what the present is from the shape of it so he uses extra cardboard and paper to make the present into the shape of a dog or a bird or a dinosaur. It makes it really hard to guess what is inside :)

We went to the Canfield's last night for Mike's birthday. We will do a bigger celebration on Saturday so that everyone can be there. I love that we have been able to do things like this since our schedule is so flexible. I will miss this when I go back to work.

Speaking of work, I am going to Seattle today for our end of the year team party. Josh is going to take care of Thomas here. It will be a little bit of a dry run for us. I am really looking forward to seeing everyone prior to getting back into it in January.

That is all the news. It looks like we may get snow this weekend which will make for some very fun pictures.

Tuesday, December 09, 2008

Christmas is coming!

The Canfields were here today to bring Thomas his Santa outfit. He is truly the cutest baby ever (not that I am biased...). We have a couple big things coming up. We have to get pictures taken with Santa (we might try tomorrow), we have to finish our shopping and we have to get everything wrapped. I also bought a set of picture frames and some photo paper from Costco and I have been printing and framing pictures. We don't have a lot of things on the wall in our house and I am so excited to have some beautiful photos :)

We started a new schedule this week. Josh is working from 10-4 while I am still on leave. He is getting a lot done while I soak up as much time as possible with Thomas before I go back to work. We then get some focused family time at night. We've only been doing this for 2 days, but it seems to be working well.

Tomorrow, Thomas and I will be doing more shopping - and Santa pictures if all goes well :)

Friday, December 05, 2008

I've only read a few books (or Friday night plans)

Other than books about my baby (Dr. Sears, Baby 411, Bringing Home your Newborn, Girlfriend's Guide to Surviving the First Year of Motherhood, the Milk Memos), I have only read 4 books while on maternity leave. At first, I was just trying to figure out what to do with the baby all the time - should I put him down, should I pick him up, was he hungry, did he have a dirty diaper, etc. Once I learned some of that stuff, I picked up Pillars of the Earth since I figured it would be good to read something nice and long. I loved it and then thought I might as well read Twilight before the seeing the movie. Now I have been reading the whole Twilight series and I am totally sucked in. I have always been a fan of fiction in general and series particularly. When I was a teenager, my mom used to make me read one classic for every Sweet Valley High book that I read. I moved on to other books as I got older, but I have always been a sucker for series. I go back to work in a month and I feel like I should have read better and more books while I was out. On the other hand, I'm so entertained by them that I might just let myself off the hook.

And, that is our Friday night plan. We are all together in the TV room - I am reading (my entertainment), Josh is playing Gears of War 2 on his Xbox (his entertainment) and Thomas is asleep in his bouncy chair.

Wednesday, December 03, 2008

So Big

I just went back through and looked at all of the pictures we have taken of Thomas since he was born. He has grown so much! I was looking at him next to me at dinner tonight and marveling at his big cheeks. He is almost 10 weeks old (tomorrow) and we last had him weighed at 8 weeks. He was 12 lb 10 oz. If he has gained an ounce a day since then (average for babies) he would now be 13 lb 8 oz (or 13.5 lbs). Of course he has been a big gainer for a while and could possible weigh more than that. He fits comfortably in 6 month size clothing and seems to be eating like a crazy man.

We are still amazed that we are parents and can't get over all of the great things our son does every day. Tonight he grabbed his foot. And today, he laughed. Now it is time for all of us to get a little sleep (we are still working on that part...).

Tuesday, December 02, 2008

Smile!


Josh spent a lot of time last night trying to get Thomas to smile for the camera and this is about as good as it gets. He gives us these big grins all the time but they are hard to capture on camera. Thomas is really into his dad right now. Whenever Josh comes into the room he gets really excited. It is the cutest thing in the world.

The rest is pretty normal. We are doing our Christmas shopping in fits and starts (mostly online) and enjoying our tree (although not as much as the cats are) and just enjoying watching our little boy grow.