Merry Christmas

I had big plans this year to do cute family Christmas cards, make fabulous treats for all of the neighbors, take Eliza to all the fun Christmas festivities that Utah offers. But as it turns out I have not had time to do everything I hoped I would be able to do. So family & friends & neighbors sorry there are no cards in the mail or treats on the door from the Thomas' this year. But we love you and our grateful for you.

The primary song, "I feel my Savior's love, in all the world around me", sums up the way I feel about this Christmas season (sans my earlier bahumbug post). I have been so blessed to have an amazing, loving husband. We were given the greatest gift this year, our beautiful and true miracle baby girl. This year we are so grateful for the gift of parenthood. Christ lives and through His sacrifice, the ultimate gift, we CAN be with our families forever. Having a child has made His sacrifice more important and more meaningful to me because I want to be with Colin and Eliza forever. I am so grateful for this Christmas season and for the Savior's love that I feel in abundance in my life. Merry Christmas.

Just stay little!

9 month- Eliza had her 1st Thanksgiving. We went to her great grandma's "Happy Grandma" (Colin's mom's mom) house in SLC. Eliza got to play with some 2nd cousins, John & Cina's kids and visit with her 2 grandma's, Grandma Thomas and Grandma Ribiero as well as aunts and uncles. Her grandpa Thomas was in India doing humanitarian work so we missed him. She loved the yams, mashed potatoes and gravy and dad's annual multi-layered rainbow jello. Mom even gave her a taste of some whipped cream which she loved too.

Eliza's 1st Thanksgiving (yes that is a feather in her headband, she was a little indian)

Eliza with her 2 grandma's and mommy

kisses from grandma

Eliza with her great grandpa Knecht (Colin's mom's dad)

Eliza with mom & dad, grandma Thomas and great grandma Knecht

just doing some reading



just hanging out

10 months - Eliza got her 1st ear infection. We tried to see if it would clear up on it's on but after a few days seemed to be getting worse so we filled our antibiotic prescription and within 24 hours she was feeling a lot better. Thank goodness for antibiotics. It was a hard 2 weeks while we were figuring that all out but our sweet Eliza stayed happy and giggly through it all. I will have people ask me, "is she always that happy?" and the answer is yes. She was blessed with a happy disposition She loves to smile, laugh (when she is in the right mood you can do anything like make a funny sound or look at her with a funny and she thinks it is hilarious), sing and talk. She waves at everyone especially when we are grocery shopping and she is in the cart. She gives waves and smiles to everyone and it takes me twice as long to get my shopping done because people want to stop and talk to her. I love it though. At 10 months Eliza will have her 1st Christmas. We are so excited.

helping mom and dad trim the Christmas treejust standing

The months have all blurred into one. The time goes too fast. Eliza is very energetic and loves to explore. She is content crawling around, pulling herself up to a standing position anywhere she can and exploring all the items in a room. She loves her toys but loves mom and dad's cell phones and car keys more. She has AMAZING fine motor skills and can pick up the tiniest crumbs with her index finger and thumb , she has been doing this for a while now. She LOVES bananas and doesn't want me to spoon fed her anymore, she wants to do that herself. She weaned herself at 10 months and it was a sad thing for me. I LOVED nursing! As I am writing this I am realizing my daughter is kind of an independent girl. She loves to socialize, snuggle, give hugs and kisses, loves being rocked and sung to, LOVES books and being read to, she loves patty cake and is a pro. peek-a-boo player. It is so cute because all you have to say is "where is eliza?" and she throws her hands over her eyes with a huge smile and starts to play peek-a-boo. She does not crawl on her hands and knees but rather does a crab crawl, which is adorable. She is fast too. She knows right where the dog food is and loves to sneak off to his bowls and splash in his water bowl and eat his dog food. She is good at pulling herself to a standing position and has very strong legs. She is petite so it is weird to me to see this tiny baby standing up. The past week she has started to stand without any support. She walks with help from mom and dad but still prefers crawling. She loves music and wiggles her feet and shakes her head to the beat. We adore her. She is our sweet, happy, curious baby and has made our hearts a million times bigger. I don't even want to think about the fact that her 1st birthday is right around the corner. Just stay little my beautiful baby girl, just stay little!



cuteness!

her feet are dangling off the high chair, she is way too

Bahumbug

So I really need to post Eliza's 9 and 10 month updates with pictures and I will do that very soon because I have a ton of cute pictures of her on my camera just waiting to be uploaded to my computer.

Can I just say...bahumbug. In large families it seems an impossible task to try to coordinate activites, Christmas dinner being the objective of this post. "I'm not coming if so and so is there", "oh, they are coming, then we can't come" etc. Is it so hard to sit down for 2 hours on Christmas eve with your whole family to share a meal and attempt to enjoy each other's company? Well yes, in my family it is. So I am frustrated because what I pictured for Christmas eve is not really turning out. Why even bother?

But, then I remembered that even though someone is always mad at someone, someone usually gets hurt feelings, sometimes even someone cries, we are family and we should make an effort to get along and to put aside our differences. After all we played barbies and GI-joes when we were little. We wasted a whole summer once beating all the levels on Super Mario. We spent hours making forts and playing games with each other. We watched movies together, made treats together, and danced to Footloose and Girls Just Want to Have Fun music. We made plays for our parents. We attempted to make an ice skating rink in our backyard (in CA, didn't work very well). We had fun, at least that is how I remember it. So even though we are all grown-up and some people just can't get it together I still think it is important to try. So that is why I bother because I love my family. And even though it may not turn out how I thought (usually never does) it WILL turn out and it will be nice, fun and memorable, I am sure of it!

This cute girl is in Paris for Christmas, my darling sister who I miss. The only thing we fight about is...nothing actually. Love her.

I wish...

...I had someone to come clean my house 1 day a week, for free of course

...someone would walk my dog everyday, bath him every 2x/weeks and comb his hair weekly

...do my grocery shopping and put everything away for me

...cook a healthy meal every night of the week and leave my kitchen sparkling clean

...spend 2 hours a day at the gym for me

...cover my night shifts every week for me but give me the pay check

so I could play peek-a-boo, cuddle and squeeze, sing to, read to and giggle with my sweet Eliza all day and lounge around with Colin all night. Maybe I could read, sew, practice the piano. Um...sounds like I need a clone of myself for Christmas. I would make the clone do all the work and I would get to just enjoy my beautiful baby and handsome hubby nonstop!

LOVE THEM!