Christmas Fun

Moose performed a few songs with his preschool. He was singing along and doing the hand motions when somebody bumped the microphone and it swung directly in front of him. For the rest of the show you could hear him well, but you couldn't see his face. He seemed unphased by the whole experience.


My cookie decorators had a good time this morning.

Grouch Berries for Breakfast

When I wake up I feel the way Moose looks in the picture. My mom use to ask us if we had had grouch berries for breakfast.
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BiggiE clearly didn't have grouch berries, though he is doing the fake "cheese!" smile he learned from his older brother.

Flight School

A little glimpse into our nightly routine. I must confess that often I think to myself, "Must the Legos be dumped out all over the floor in order to have an airplane?" The answer to everyone else in the family would be, "Yes, of course."

Winter Garden

Tyler was working hard in the garden this weekend with his little helpers. One thing I love about living in northern California is having a garden year round. Our winter veggies will include: garlic, shallots, arugula, lettuce, and swiss chard. Yum, sounds like a tasty salad.

Oh Rosemary, Oh Rosemary

We have never had an official Christmas tree in our 8 years of marriage. The primary reason being we both like real trees and we always go to Colorado for Christmas, so the expense to enjoy a tree for only a short time has been prohibitive. Here's my solution: buy a little rosemary tree from Trader Joe's and we have a "practical" Christmas tree. Pictured above Moose and BiggiE studied the tree with their friend Magpie.

Reflections on love or the lack thereof

After reading Angie's post entitled "Sick" I started to contemplate what is going on in my heart. I've been thinking about how I trust God and honor God and maybe even obey God, but I haven't really been loving God the last couple weeks. What happens to a relationship without the love?

Yesterday I realized I have been the same way toward Tyler the last couple weeks, too. I trust him and honor him, but haven't been terribly loving.

I reflected that I have been functioning in these two most important relationships from my own selfishness. How do God and Tyler improve my life, what am I getting out of it? Let me state, for the record, that I am getting a ton of blessings from God and Tyler and can't imagine life without them, but all this self-focus can and will corrupt both relationships. It's like I ask God to sit on the throne of my life and then tell Him to scooch over a little so I can sit up there with Him and survey His handiwork. Where is the humble praise and adoration and love?

I really appreciate what Melissa had to say in "Dumbledore's Line" about perspective and choosing what is right instead of what is easy. I felt like she was writing about my life.

Please, God, rekindle my first love. Give me an undivided heart.

Your Opinion

Maybe this photo is better than the previous because it is not as washed out and all the kids are looking. Dad and Drew are doing the annoying "heroic" pose so often preferred by the Thomas males.

Thanksgiving Thomas Family Photo

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Originally uploaded by tybythomas

Here's the annual Thomas Family photo from this past week. We were in St. Louis with Tyler's family for almost 9 days and had a great visit. Pictured: Tyler's mom and dad, Tyler's older brother, Jeff (upper left), Tyler's younger brother, Drew (upper right), our sister-in-law, Sue, and our nieces and nephew (Kate, Bo and Anna). Three out of five kids are looking, so that is pretty good.

Veggie Love

My mom sent me this link a few weeks ago. Seems like it could be a helpful way to work in more veggies (unnoticed), but part of me feels like I had my fill of pureeing when we made the kids food as babies. See what you think. Incidently, this idea comes from Jessica Seinfeld. Has anyone seen Bee Movie, yet?

Rice, Rice and More Rice

I came across this site from a blog I love called Antique Mommy. I've collected 250 grains for rice for the poor, so far. Try it out and let me know your score.

Ode to Orange

My dad had coppery auburn hair when he was younger and he did not like it if anyone said his hair was red or orange. "My hair is golden," he would insist, only half joking. I feel fine saying both my boys have red hair (though is often looks more honey colored to me), but putting them next to the pumpkins with the orange in their sweaters you can really see how often orange is the best descriptor. Fine with me. I love orange. It seems warm and bouncy, or maybe that's just my boys.



P.S. For some great fall photos check out my friend, Angie's , blog. Her girls may me want to rake some leaves.

The things kids say

We have been loving listening to the boys recently. One of my favorite things about preschool age children is hearing them express what they're thinking about and how they see the world.

BiggiE, though not preschool age, is very verbal. I use to say that one-year-olds were hard for me because they can't talk very much. God has taken away that excuse with BiggiE. At 18 months he is already linking words, for example , "Here you go", "please stop", "Judah's house". He is also a little parrot and will attempt nearly any word he hears. One of my favorites is "delicious" (sounding like dewicious).

The other day Moose was talking about when he becomes a parent. (We have been working on clarifying who is the parent and who is the child.) He told us he is going to have four kids, two boys and two girls. (I'm already looking forward to being a grandma and this sounded pretty good to me.) Then he said he is going to give his kids discipline and crepes. I chuckled and then realized that is actually probably a good balance of truth and grace:).

Ha, ha. The boys are watching the old Robin Hood movie while I type and Moose just started crying. I glanced up and saw it was the romance scene between Robin Hood and Maid Mariam. Moose lamented, "I want the day part!" Apparently, aversion to romance begins at a young age.

Recently, Tyler and I were discussing our differences of opinion on how to explain concepts to the boys. While I certainly don't want to speak baby talk, sometimes I feel Tyler uses words and ideas that are too complicated. Wouldn't you know that the very next day Tyler scored big points for his side of the argument. The boys and I were driving to get Moose's hair cut and somehow the conversation came around to Moose asking, "Where is God?" I replied that God is everywhere. Then Moose said something else about everywhere that I didn't quite catch, so I simply said, "Yes, God is the only one who is everywhere." Moose added, "That's right. Omnipresent means everywhere. Remember Papa said that?" One order of humble pie, please.

Helpers at the Winery

Harvest is drawing to a close and Tyler just had his first full weekend in months. The boys (and me, too) really miss him with his crazy long work weeks, so we're all glad to be returning to normal. During harvest we make up reasons to drive to Napa so we can visit Tyler.
Tyler is making some Syrah with our friend Jim who works at Stags Leap. In this picture they had just finished pressing the grapes and the boys look like they're considering jumping in the bin. A picture with purple feet would have been great.
One of the best parts of visiting Papa is getting to drive the forklift.
Anybody need us to move a few boxes?
A little dance party inside the winery when all the work is finished.

A Visit with Grandmere and Grandpere

After both my parents were gone, Tyler's parents came. It is so helpful during harvest when Tyler is working crazy hours to have all the grandparents around.
Moose loves trains, but is not to keen on the whistle.
This restaurant in Napa is the most kid-friendly place we've been that is not for kids. The boys ordered "Pizza per Bambinii". You should have seen their faces when their pizza arrived AND it had french fries on top! The adults got to enjoy risotto and homemade pasta, so everyone was content.

A Visit with Grandpa and Grandma

These are a few pictures from when my mom and dad were out in September. The boys were wildly spoiled with outings and lots of attention. Thank God for grandparents.
We took a trip to the San Fran Zoo and had a great time wandering around. It is pretty small compared to some zoos (ie. St. Louis or San Diego), but perfectly fine for our little guys. They loved the grizzly bears.

This is a super old video that Tyler made for our parents. It has been about 6 months since this was taken so BiggiE is completely different and would be singing along with Moose if we filmed it now. Actually, I am trying to think how to capture BiggiE singing. He is hilarious because he pretty much gets the tune and then throws in a word here and there. He reminds us of someone trying to sing along with the radio. It is amazing the difference 6 months makes for both Moose and BiggiE.

First Day of Preschool

This is an old video, but I now using Firefox which is making Mac posting so much easier, so I can finally post a video.

Gleaned Goodies

One thing I love about browsing other blogs is the insights and humorous escapades from other people's lives. I think I need to start a category of "Gleaned Goodies" that I snatch from other people's blogs.

This one is from Organized Chaos. Organized Chaos got this quote from the book "Train Up A Child".

"A child learns of the character of God through observing his parents. Parents don't have to be perfect, just a balanced representation of God's personality. Everything that God is in character and government, parents should display within the limits of their humanity. Parents need not be all-powerful, just the child's source of strength. They don't have to be all-wise, just wise enough to guide the child and warrant admiration. Parents need not be sinless, just demonstrate a commitment to goodness."

It is so reaffirming that parenting is all about God and His glory and all my failure is fine, part of the plan even, because I can use it to point my child to the Perfect Parent. Of course, being a source of my child's strength, wise enough to guide my child and demonstrate a commitment to goodness is enough to have me on my knees all day, everyday. But, the best place to live from is being wholly submitted to Christ anyway.

Hot Chocolate With Green Scum On Top

We just had a lovely morning field trip with Moose's preschool to the local pumpkin patch. It was drizzling so we arrived home a bit damp. In celebration of Fall and gray, rainy days I suggested we make hot chocolate. I like to make my own hot chocolate on the stove with milk, cocoa and sugar.

As I stirred and heated our treat I was inspired to toss in a scoop of Kidz SuperFood (Outrageous Chocolate Flavor, says the package.) Normally, I serve this cleverly disguised concoction of dehydrated fruits and vegetables in cold milk. I thought, why not warm? Well, as the title of this post declares: green scum. Something about the heat separated the chocolate color from the veggies and a nice green layer formed on top of the pot. I chuckled to myself and thanked my lucky stars that both my sons are still young enough that the promise of a "hot drink" is all they care about whether topped with whipped cream or, in this case, green scum. I did, however, decide to spare you a photograph.

Smell That Apple Pie?

While my dad was out for a visit we drove over to Sebastopol and went apple picking.

I had forgotton how much my dad loves orchards, so he was in his element searching for the best apples with his grandsons.

I told Moose how we lived on an apple orchard in New Zealand when he was a baby. He loves hearing stories about his life as a baby. After you tell him he repeats the story like he remembers it. "Yea, when I was a baby we lived on an orchard."
















BiggiE cracks up the whole family. He carried around this huge apple and would stop every few steps and put his whole self into a bite.

I am always amazed how such a simple outing is so much fun and I wonder why I don't do it more often.

Oh yes, we did make a delicious apple pie, but it didn't stay around long enough to take a picture.

Naboo Outback plays at the Coliseum

This is from my friend, Angie's, blog. Yes, totally pointless, but silly nonetheless. I'd try to do some deep, thought-provoking post, but right now, this is all I've got. I'm all out of deep.

Let me know if you do it on your blog... I'd love to take a peek!

1. YOUR ROCK STAR NAME: (first pet & current car)
Naboo Outback

2.YOUR GANGSTA NAME: (fave ice cream flavor, favorite cookie)
Chocolate Chip Sugar

3. YOUR "FLY Guy/Girl" NAME: (first initial of first name, first three letters of your last name)
RTho

4. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal)
Blue Dolphin

5. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, city where you were born)
Byranie Kansas City

6. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first)
Thore

7. SUPERHERO NAME: (2nd favorite color, favorite drink put "The")
Green The Chai

8. NASCAR NAME: (the first names of your grandfathers)
Frank William

9.WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (mother's & father's middle names )
Sue Allan

Okay, Blue Dolphin is not a very creative detective name. Guess I'll have to give up all those secret capers.

The un-fairy tale me

I was writing in my journal the other day when I was blindsided by my own sin. I was detailing my feelings about a new group I joined where I like all the women, but many of them are not instant connects for me. I know it is a rare, special thing to meet someone and know that they are a potential bosom friend. Of course, knowing how uncommon that is and still expecting it is an ongoing occurance/problem for me.

As I journaled I was trying to describe how I felt about these women. I wrote, "...it's just not a glass slipper fit." Then so suddenly and forcefully I almost felt it physically, the thought came, "Or maybe it's just that I'm not Cinderella." I suspect the thought was from God because the conviction I felt as I burst into tears was that gentle, firm and deep ache that only the Spirit can bring. I confessed my self-centeredness and arrogance. I am usually so focused on myself that if the thought comes of how I could bless other people it is most certainly belated. May God open my eyes to how He sees people.

Cloth Diapers

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Originally uploaded by tybythomas

Save money while you help the environment!
I think I have a lot of soap boxes that I try not to spend much time on, but what is a blog if not the chance to spout my point of view. I want to put a plug out there for cloth diapers.
I grew up thinking I would use cloth diapers on my children and then lived in Davis, CA while I was pregnant the first time. Davis has a huge population of cloth diaper users and that helped me see the logistics of how I might actually do the cloth diaper thing.
I have used cloth diapers with both of my children and have been really happy with the experience. I made a conservative estimate that we save at least $500 a year using cloth diapers and washing them at home. This number uses 5 diapers per child per day with diapers purchased at Costco. I also subtracted the water and electricity required to clean the diapers. For us, $500 is a significant sum and well worth the two extra loads of laundry a week. Plus, I like to dry the diapers outside on the clothesline in the summer. I love looking outside and seeing the diapers on the line knowing that the sun is sanitizing the diapers even more. I feel connected to all the families before us that didn't have the disposable option.
I realize cloth diapers aren't for everyone, but if you are at all interested I strongly encourage you to explore the option. Happy diapering!

Lack of pictures

Argh! I broke our camera by dropping it smack on the concrete sidewalk. It no longer takes pictures, but at least I can get the old pictures off. Fortunately, we have a stream of grandparents visiting over the next few weeks, so we won't leave our fans completely without photos. Hmm, anybody want to get me a really special Christmas present:).

Outer Banks, NC

Finally, I am posting pictures from our trip to the Outer Banks in North Carolina.

More pictures from the Outer Banks, NC

This got me thinking...

"We have not got far enough if we play a game of cards with the children "merely" to amuse them or to show that they are forgiven. If this is the best we can do, we are right to do it. But it would be better if a deeper, less conscious, Charity threw us into a frame of mind in which a little fun with the children was the thing we should at that moment like best."

C.S. Lewis in The Four Loves

Pie Eating Contest

Tyler finished second place at the Sebastapol Apple Fair pie eating contest. The man to his left in the white shirt ending up winning and in this picture it looks like he is sizing up Tyler's progress so he can pass him on the home stretch. We figured the free pie Tyler consumed offset part of the cost of going to the fair.

My Chum

One of my best friends, Karen, came out for a visit from North Carolina. It was her husband's 30th birthday present to her, but ended up being just as much of a present for me. We had a great time hanging around Sonoma: the plaza park, picinic at a winery, chasing two little boys, etc. We were able to spend one night in San Fran sans kids thanks to Tyler and the generosity of our friend AJ who let us stay in his family's apartment in North Beach for free. These are a few of the touristy spots we hit while in San Fran: cable car, Ghirardelli Square, the Fishersmans' Wharf, beat poet Cafe Treiste, Golden Gate Bridge and then Sausalito.

We crammed a lot into 5 days. We walked through the redwoods in Armstrong park and drove along Highway 1 with the boys on Monday. We stayed up late (for us) talking every night and kept swearing we would go to bed early the next night to no avail.

It was so refreshing to catch up face to face. We have been pretty much "phone friends" since high school except a couple summers we had together during college. We could reminisce middle school and share the light and not so light about life since marriage and kids. Definitely one of the highlights of my summer if not my year.

Moose's 3rd Birthday

We celebrated Moose's 3rd birthday this Saturday with two other families. It was a small party, but both the kids and the parents had a great time (which isn't always the case with children's birthday parties.)
Micah had a "Farmer Jas" cake because he really likes farms and we have a favorite CD called "A Day on the Farm with Farmer Jason".
Our big guy was thrilled to be the birthday boy. He has been to a few birthday parties, but we're not sure he has the whole etiquette down because he kept wishing all the guests "Happy Birthday" as they left. Maybe he had such a nice time he was hoping they would all enjoy their own birthdays in the same way.
After dinner we capped off the day of sweets with an ice cream cone. This was Moose's first ever ice cream cone of his own. (This sweet little girl is Magpie. If this picture gets you you should meet her in person because she has a personality to match that cute face.)

Grapes in the backyard

Elias at 15 months
Micah at one year

Perhaps there is a Tyler & Sons vineyard in the future. Picking grapes seems to come naturally to both boys.

Ah, to be young and able to feed yourself. As a preteen I was warned about the humiliations possible on a date from spagetti. I imagined the splattering noodles, but not this.

Future Money Making Venture?

Moose went over the lawn after Tyler was finished mowing. I think they could be a good team and maybe we'll get him through college on his own lawn care business.