Arizona Christmas Trip

We left right on time Friday night, but because of Austin rush-hour traffic, it took us 4 hours to Fredericksburg, instead of the 3.5 like normal. We stayed at Days Inn that night and Matthew decided that he didn't want to go to sleep until about 11pm though he was in bed by 8pm. The next morning we woke up and had a wonderful continental breakfast with Texas shaped waffles, fruit, cereal, danishes, muffins, juice, milk, and biscuits and gravy. It was so yummy.
Saturday we were only suppose to drive 6.5 hours total and stay the night in El Paso but the 80mph speed limit helped us get into El Paso 45 minutes earlier then we thought and then we gained an hour so we decided to keep going. We drove about 10 hours that day but thanks to the portable dvd player that we bought life was good for Matthew. We stayed that night in Lordsburg, New Mexico. Sunday morning we realized that it was only 3.5 hours to get to our old ward and they didn't start until 12:30pm so we put our church clothes on and away we drove. It was their WONDERFUL Christmas program, like it always is, and we were so happy we got to be there to listen to all the wonderful music and see our old friends. We received such a warm welcome. After that we drove 45 minutes to Grandma and Grandpa's house. We were all so happy to be done with our trip (one way at least). We have had such a wonderful time here this last week and we can't believe it has gone by so fast. We have been over to Chris' brother's house a couple days and Matthew absolutely loves playing with his cousins. His new best friend is Hudson I think, though Emily and Tori come in close second. Max is his arch enemy in a way because they just fight over toys. What do you expect from 2 year olds? We will probably be hearing Emily, Hudson, Tori, and Max for many many days. We have seen them every day since Monday. It has been so fun to be around them and it has made me appreciate my brother-in-law, J, even more. Two nights Chris and I just put our kids to bed there so we could play games. The first night we all played Rock Band and during one of the songs I was the drummer and I was totally off, I called for J to come rescue me and it was cool because I felt like he was my big brother. The second night we were there, when we did finally "try" to go to sleep, Allison didn't want to sleep, she just wanted to cry. J came and offered to take her so I could go to sleep. What an awesome guy. Deb offered to take her as well but it is more surprising when I guy offers. It has been fun to develop bigger bonds between the brother-in-laws. All four of the brothers are here for Christmas and that means I get to know them a little more each time I am around them. It has been cool. Grandma and Grandpa have just absolutely loved having their grandkids in the house with them. Grandma has especially loved getting a smile from her little granddaughter every day, usually in the morning. We have never spent this long here before and it has gone by really fast. We are leaving tomorrow after Matthew's nap and driving 2 hours to Tuscon to stay with my sister for a couple days.
Last year when Deb and J found out we were pregnant, (Christmas day) they ran across this ADORABLE Santa suit and picked it up for us. This is your one sneak peak of what has happened here. I will post more pictures of our trip when we return home.

Steph needs....

My sister-in-law, Deb, had this on her blog and I thought it would be fun to see what came up. So what you do is type in "Steph needs" in google and see what it says. Make sure you put it in " ". These are the things I need...

Steph needs to go to the bathroom real bahhd.
This is kind of funny because I usually have other things to do rather then take time out to go to the bathroom, so sometimes I will be doing the bathroom dance and Chris will have to bring it to my attention that I need to take time out for myself.

Steph needs someone to CoNfOrT HeR
Well, not true I already have someone:)

Steph needs to be gone
How did they know that? It is right, I should be finishing laundry, packing and getting ready to drive to AZ, not doing this....but I am sure I will cram everything I need to get done in before we leave at 3:30 this afternoon.

STEPH NEEDS tough love
Sometimes yes, and other times no.

STEPH NEEDS ANOTHER NEW START
Somedays I wish I could go back and do things over but that won't ever happen so I just have to make the best out of what I have.

steph needs a prince....xoxo
Well, this one isn't true either but it was interesting.

Ok, well I have spent enough time on here when I should be preparing for my trip so I better start being productive.

4 Month Check-up

Allison had her 4 month check-up today. I went to find her little measurements that the nurse gave me and it must have fallen out somewhere today. So sad:( I will have to call them tomorrow to make sure I get all her information for her scrapbook.
However, what I do remember is that she weighs 15 pounds 4 ounces and she is 24 inches long. She is 75-90% for weight and 70% for height.

I love this little outfit because it is so true. Usually when she sees mommy she just smiles and smiles. However, if she sees daddy, he sometimes gets a grin. I love it but Chris hates it. When our friends gave us this outfit for her Christmas present it was absolutely perfect.
She normally has to swaddled to sleep and if we unswaddle her she wakes up but because she got shots today and she has Tylenol in her she just stayed asleep when we unswaddled her. I just love this little girl:)
Can you tell she has a brother? Allison only has one pink blanket that is big enough to swaddle her in so she gets to use two of Matthew's old blankets. Oh well, right?

Look at those cheeks....she comes by them honestly:)

Trimming the Tree

So why is it called trimming the tree?
Matthew liked putting up the tree, especially the train.

He decided one branch needed a lot of ornaments and put about ten on the same branch.

SNOW!!!!!

No, we didn't go anywhere. We actually got really honest to goodness snow here in Bryan, TX.
Wednesday, December 10th I woke up and saw some white stuff on the ground but to me it just looked like piled up sleet. I didn't attribute it to snow because snow doesn't fall in Bryan, TEXAS. However, that afternoon it actually did start snowing and not only did it snow but it stayed on the ground and things turned white. It was such am amazing sight. I remember it snowed one other time that since we have lived here in the past 4.5 years but it didn't stay on the ground, it just melted. I really wanted to take Matthew outside to play in the snow but I was making dinner to take to someone along with making our dinner and I just couldn't do it. Chris asked Matthew if he wanted to go outside and play in the snow but Matthew said no. If I was free I just have just made him. We don't get this opportunity every day.
However, there was still a little bit of snow left the next morning so before we went to Allison's post-op dr. appt I bundled Matthew up and he went out and crunched in the snow.

Our roof is suppose to be black

He doesn't actually have gloves so I put mine on him and they were a smidgen too big but I think they kept his hands warmer then they would have been so that is all that matters.

Checking out the white stuff on the ground

This video isn't because I have never seen snow. Remember, I am from Montana.
This video is proof that it was snowing. This was just at the beginning.

This one was when it was actually sticking to the ground and covering it white, along with everything else, as you can imagine.


I went to a work Christmas party on Friday and one of the ladies said that she had 4 inches of snow at her house but the closer she got to Bryan, the less it snowed. I also heard on the radio that in Snook it was snowing so hard, you couldn't even see the car right in front of you. Luckily, when I did have to go out that night I didn't get in a wreck nor did I see any.

Thanksgiving

I was looking on my camera and realized that I need to play catch-up a little bit. Since we didn't have an eventful Thanksgiving, I just sort of forgot that I took any pictures.
On Wednesday, I made the salads and the pies. It was the first time I have ever made a pumpkin pie. I didn't know it took soo long to cook. It did eventually get cooked and when I ate it, it tasted really good, just like my mom's.
On Thursday, I just cooked the turkey and all the other stuff that needed to be hot at dinner and we just ate when everything got done. It was so stressless, just having our own little family here. If everything failed, it wasn't going to be a big deal. At one point while cooking I had little Allison in the kitchen on the floor. She just beamed when I looked at her. We really enjoyed just staying home and cooking dinner for our own family. (Yeah, I know, very anti-social)

So sweet!!

This is a common occurrence every single day. This little girl will definitely know who her older brother is. Maybe she won't know who he is if he is far away but she will know every little thing about his face:) Matthew loves baby Allison!

"My name's Matthew, ok?! My name's Matthew!"

This smile is so contagious.

Chris trying to keep the kids out of my way.

Pictures

I wanted to get some family pictures so we could send out Christmas cards and so Chris came up with the brilliant idea to just using the timer on our camera and then we could just stay home.
Here are just a few of the ones we took.

Since Allison is only going to use her blessing dress, I had to get as many pictures with her on it as a could. We took a few family ones and then I made Chris take even more pictures with his daughter. Chris hates taking pictures, so he was very glad when we were done.
However, I am sure baby Allison loves pictures, I hope she takes after me in that regard. Since baby Allison had her dress on and my mom had sent baby Allison's quilt, my mom wanted pictures of Allison in her dress on the quilt. (My mom inherited quilting material/equipment from her mom and ever since then she has made a quilt for every grandchild. The only problem is she has about 20 grandchildren now so that is a lot of different quilts. I believe the oldest two grandchildren were already born before the inheritance so they haven't gotten one, but still18 quilts is a lot.) I am sure there will be many more grandchildren for her but hopefully not in the Thomas family. We are quite happy with our two.
So here is baby Allison laying on her quilt that Grandma McNiven made.

Cosmetic Surgery

So little Allison has already had cosmetic surgery in her short life. You may be thinking, boy Steph starting her young, but we think it is all for the better.
In the hospital when they brought baby Allison to me to feed her the first time, Chris and I noticed that she had 3 skin tags right in front of her left ear. It really bothered me because I had never seen that before or knew what they were. Apparently skin tags are extremely common and they used to just tie them off in the hospital but I guess that still left a little nub. Our pediatrician wasn't worried about it one bit and knew we would be able to get them taken care of. We didn't think that our insurance would pay for it since it was cosmetic surgery but we figured we would pay whatever we needed to, to get them removed. Thankfully we only had to pay two office visit fees and our insurance covered the rest:) Chris sat behind a girl in one of his college classes that had some behind her ear and he didn't think they were very attractive so he wanted to make sure Allison wouldn't have that problem. After Allison's 2 week appointment, the pediatrician called the ENT (Ear, Nose, Throat Dr.) and he said he wanted her to have more fat in the skin tags so he didn't want to remove them until after she was 2 Months old. We had a consultation with the Dr. and then she had her surgery on Thursday, November 20th. I took her into the surgery room, they put a papoose (straight jacket) on her which she was used to since we swaddle her but she didn't like not being able to move her head. Once the Dr. pulled out the needle to give her a local anesthetic I left the room. I went down three different halls and sat in some chairs. I took the Ensign with me to read but as I was trying to read I could hear my baby screaming. Needless to say, it didn't get much reading done. After awhile I didn't hear her crying and then at the end I heard her crying again which actually made me feel better because then I knew she was still breathing. Shortly after I heard her start crying again, the Dr. came and found me and told me she did well. When I went in to see her, they were cleaning the iodine off of her and she was not a happy camper. Even after I picked her up it took her a while to settle down but once she did, she just fell asleep in my arms. She had two bigger ones and then one tiny one in the middle of the two. I thought the Dr. would cut them off but he actually cut them out so hopefully there won't be any stubs left. He used dissolvable stitches. By the time we got home, she woke up and was smiling at Chris so I think she was OK. All but one of her stitches have fallen out or dissolved and it is looking really good.
If you look really closely you can see the two bigger ones right in front of her ear.

Before

After

Grandpa's visit!!!

Grandpa Thomas came to visit us last weekend. It was a short stay and we tried to pack a ton in while he was here. He arrived Friday night at 5:30 and left Sunday afternoon at 1:30pm.
When we picked him up we decided he needed to try a Texas restaurant. We took him to Chicken Oil, which looks like it is abandoned from the outside. Inside you sit at tables that have tons of names carved in them and deer head hanging around everywhere. He just laughed and enjoyed the Texas atmosphere. The burgers were really good. Matthew just enjoyed watching the cartoons on TV that he couldn't hear. I think he ate about 4 fries for his dinner. By the time we ran a couple errands and got home it was past Matthew's bedtime so he went straight to bed. We got to enjoy just talking to Chris's dad. On Saturday morning a made breakfast and then we got ready to go to the Renaissance Festival. That is always such an event. It was chilly and even cold at times because the wind was blowing so much. After several hours there, we drove back and took Grandpa to the university. He got to see where his son spends all his time. We ran more errands, picked up pizza and came home. After dinner Matthew was exhausted since he didn't get a nap and we put him straight to bed. We talked more that night and I even made him cinnamon rolls, which I think he even liked:) However, the price to had to pay before eating cinnamon rolls was looking at all my scrapbooks:)
Sunday morning we went to church which Matthew got to wear the new suit that Grandma and Grandpa gave to him. When we opened the little package I was so excited. I have always wanted Matthew to have a suit but they were always out of my price range. They also got a matching dress for baby Allison which she will have to wear but she was wearing her pure white blessing dress to church that day. At church that morning baby Allison was blessed and given her name on the records of the church, Allison Kay Thomas. It was so wonderful to have family here for it. We are so happy that Grandpa got to come out and be here with us for this special event. Right after sacrament we had to leave and prepare to take Grandpa back to the airport. However, first Grandpa had to get a picture of Matthew and Allison in their new clothes from them or Grandpa would have been in hot water with Grandma. So I quickly changed Allison into her new dress and I only got one picture, which wasn't very good but I hope Grandpa got a good one. I figure I will be able to put them in it again and take more pictures. It was sad that Grandpa had to leave so soon but we were so happy that he came to see us. Today at preschool we made turkeys and the kids got to put what they were thankful for on the feathers and Matthew said Grandpa. He absolutely loved having Grandpa here and so did we. It was wonderful!!
Grandpa reading Matthew his bedtime story

Right after Grandpa read a book to Matthew.
Grandpa's new favorite book is Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

Matthew looking so handsome. I loved combing his hair and seeing him in his suit. That is one of the best things about having a boy.

Family Picture

Not a great picture but the it is the only one so far of them in their new church clothes.

Leaving Grandpa at the airport:(

Little Girl

Our sweet little girl sleeps through the night now!!!!! (Which makes her even sweeter:) She started sleeping through the night on October 30th, so a little over 2 weeks now. The first couple nights she slept the whole night, Chris said it was just a fluke. She was 11 weeks old at that time. However, after a week of sleeping through the night he does think it is not just a fluke anymore. Actually looking at the calendar it seems like more then just two weeks. She has her last bottle of 5oz. at 10pm, goes to sleep and then eats 5oz. again at 6am. There have been two nights that she woke up crying and we just put her binki back in her mouth and she went back to sleep. This sleeping through the night makes me extremely happy:) Matthew didn't start sleeping through the night until he was 4 months old when we started feeding him cereal and then he was able to last, so we were pleasantly surprised when she started this wonderful trend earlier. Hopefully, she doesn't regress, but right now I am going to enjoy my much needed sleep:)

Baby Allison - November 9, 2008 - 2 Months old

6 Years!!!

I am proud to announce that I have been married to my wonderful husband for 6 years now. Last Saturday was our Anniversary. We didn't do much but we did get to go out for dinner withOUT the kids. It was wonderful. We went to Texas Roadhouse!!! YUMMY!!
We got a small cactus blossom, and split an entree (Pulled BBQ pork and grilled BBQ chicken combo with two sides). However, with all the peanuts you get to eat (and throw the shells on the floor) and the unlimited rolls they give you, we were so stuffed and weren't even able to finish our entree. It was SO good. Thank you so much Amy and Paul for watching our kids, so we could enjoy our oh so yummy meal.
This was Chris and I's first picture taken together back in 2002. We met in February of 2002 and started dating in May of 2002. It was my brother, Jon's birthday in June and so I wanted to take he and Tana out for his birthday. Jon's favorite restaurant at the time was Perkins so we took them there and they took this picture.
Chris and I had both forgotten that I had braces on when we got married. Not until Chris scanned this picture did we remember this. Chris and I got married on November 8, 2002 in Mesa, Arizona. I had a wonderful orthodontist who was so nice and took my top 6 brackets off for my wedding day. I am so grateful to him. Of course I am sure they could have airbrushed them out but it was just nicer not to have to worry about them. I had my brackets off for a week and then he put them back on.
Can you guess my age in this picture?

June 2002

One of our many wedding pictures on the grounds of the Mesa, AZ Temple.

I knew that I was marrying a wonderful guy but I didn't know that he was going to be such an AMAZING husband. He is so wonderful!! He is always willing to help me and I have to tell him to go do something else rather then helping me with dishes, cooking, laundry, cleaning...ect. I remember when we first got married our first little "argument" was who was going to take the dishes out of the dishwasher. We both wanted to do it so the other person didn't have to:) I remember telling that to my co-workers and they just rolled their eyes and said "newlyweds" shaking their heads. Actually the first 3-4 years of our marriage, Chris was home more so he is the one that did the housework. Besides doing all the cleaning, he always had dinner done when I walked in the door. He is so much better at cooking then I am. He times everything, and likes to try different spices. I will only stick to a recipe. Not only do I only have to ask once for help with something, but many times, he sees something needs to get done and he will do it. That has actually gotten him in trouble once because I felt like he was doing "my job" and that he didn't think I was doing it well enough so he was stepping in. That wasn't his intention at all. He just knew it was towards the end of my pregnancy and I was a little more tired then usual so he was just trying to help out. Chris is a wonderful husband and takes great care of me and our family and he makes me laugh all the time. Though he is not great at dealing with newborns, and sometimes he needs to just let some things go when dealing with kids, it is fun to watch him interacting with Matthew and Allison (now that she smiles).
I LOVE my husband and am so glad that he wanted to marry me.

Halloween

For some reason this year I was a lot more excited for Halloween. I think it is because Matthew understands more about what is happening and he can actually say trick-or-treat this year. We found costumes for all of us, which was the first year Chris and I have ever dressed up in the 6 years (on Saturday) that we have been married. It was actually pretty fun. Chris was a wizard, I was a jester, Matthew was Buzz Lightyear, and Allison was a pea...a sweatpea.

We had a full week of Halloweening to do. On Monday night we were invited to our friends Halloween FHE. It is so fun to go. She read the book called Big Pumpkin. It is such a fun book. I love it. We also played Halloween Bingo, sang songs, played games and decorated cookies. It was such a great night. Thanks Martins!
On Wednesday night we had our ward Halloween carnival which is so fun and a ton of people show up. There were some REALLY good costumes. I absolutely had a blast. Chris isn't much of a social thing so he mainly goes to events with us because I want him to. It was fun to all be dressed up this year. Chris held Allison all night while I got to go around with Matthew and play games. I had such a great time with my little boy. I just love him. He is so much fun to watch and listen to (well except for the crying). At the carnival there was a little picture taking place and since I am SO into pictures we got one taken. The saddest part about this is that this is our first family picture ever!!! I just think it is so sad because for one Allison is 2.5 months old and for two we are all in Halloween costumes so it really isn't us. Oh well.

The first thing that Matthew did when we walked in the door was the cupcake walk. I don't really think he knew what it was but that was the closest thing to the door. He did win a cupcake and ate the frosting off of it.

I was able to get Matthew to get a pumpkin drawn on his face. He was a little skeptical and didn't really know what was happening and actually I don't know if he ever even saw the pumpkin on his face in the mirror. However, he did sit long enough for her to paint it on there.

My friend took this picture of Matthew and I and it kind of turned out cute. We participated in the costume parade and then came down and watch the rest of the parade after we walked across the stage.

They had a pie eating contest and it was hilarious. I have actually never seen a pie eating contest and there is probably a reason for that. I think it started with just the Bishopric being the ones in the contest but they had so many pies they just started calling a bunch of guys to go up and participate in this contest. Like I said earlier, there were some pretty good costumes. The guy in the middle was Han Solo and the rest of his family was all Star Wars Characters. Do you see Mr. Incredible? Matthew thought this was so cool but couldn't believe that Mr. and Mrs. Incredible were right there. They were great costumes. The only one I really like was, can you find John McCain? He is sitting next to Han Solo and three away from Mr. Incredible. His wife was Sarah Palin. Her name is actually Sara and she has long dark hair like Sarah Palin so it worked out so well. I just had to ask Sara how much her outfit cost:)
After the carnival we went outside and had trunk-or-treat. I put Allison who was asleep in the stroller and Matthew and I (and Allison) went trunk-or-treating while Chris stayed at the car and handed out candy. When we got to the McCain/Palin vehicle they had a music stand out with small American flags standing up. It was quite the setup and made me laugh.
With the elections so close to Halloween, I just wonder how many McCains, Palins, Obamas, and Bidens there were out this year.
We had a TON of fun. Thank you Erin, Allison, Young Women, Young Men, the activities committee and anyone else for making it so fun.

On Thursday at preschool the kids helped us decorate cardboard boxes and we used them as homes. The moms layed on their tummies inside the box and waited for the kids to come knock on the door and then they trick-or-treated. They had fun of course getting more candy.

I decided for Friday that we (Matthew and I) were going to stay in our costumes all day, except for naptime. We went to music makers in the morning and the kids were encouraged to come in their costumes. I loved that there was a Woody there and so I was able to get a picture of Buzz and Woody together.

After music makers the kids lined up and the moms went to each one and as the kids said trick-or-treat we put candy in their bags. Matthew's favorite candy has been suckers.

That afternoon we went to the George Bush Library/Museum since they were also having trick-or-treating. I don't know what I thought it was going to be like but it was not what I expected. First of all, by the time we actually waited in line and went through the metal detectors we didn't have much time we went through and it was a space theme this time but there were people throughout handing out candy. If you wanted to take a picture "in the oval office" you could but you had to wait in a long line. However, if you didn't want to take the picture, you still had to wait in a long line just to go through. Since we were suppose to pick up Chris at a certain time and we were already late I just decided to forgo the picture and the rest of the museum. By the time I walked out the front door to leave, the security line was so long I thought I was in the airport at Christmas time. I was glad I wasn't in it.
After I picked Chris up from school we went to my friends house for pizza and then all the kids went trick-or-treating together. I watched them trick-or-treat around the cul de sac and while we were out there some people came up and were so excited to see a little tiger because they had a monkey in their stroller.

They wanted to get a picture with the tiger so we took one as well. We have no idea who these people were but they loved the jungle theme we had going there.

My little tiger. This tiger costume and the pumpkin costume were both ones Matthew wore when he was 6 months. I never did get pictures of Matthew in the tiger costume when he was little only the pumpkin one.

By the end of the night I was ready to be done with Halloween. We had such a full week of Halloween, we definitely got our moneys worth out of our costumes, especially the buzz lightyear costume since he wore it at least once, 4 out of 5 days.