Playing Catch-up - Take 3

Ok, so here is the last of the catch-up photos. It is everything from Christmas time to present. Phew! Now I have three more months of photo accumulations before posting again... right?

Christmas 2008
This year, we went to Cedar City to have Christmas with John's family. We had a great time, with lots of visiting, activities, and food! The grandchildren all went sledding, made Christmas tree ornaments, and played quite a bit. Tom really enjoys his cousins - particularly his cousins Mike and James, who are close to his age. He has been asking to go visit them ever since we got home. Here are a few pictures from Christmas.

Tom looking at his presents from Santa. He was thrilled to get yet another Thomas the Tank Engine set, as well as a block train, books about trains, and a puzzle. Trains, trains, trains... that is pretty much how Tom rolls right now.

Thomas reading his Thomas the Tank Engine book.

A very tired Daddy and Mary Alice. While Tom explored his gifts from Santa (and everyone else's too, for that matter) these two caught a few more Z's on the couch.

Mary Alice in her pretty Christmas dress. Grandma Christine and Aunt Nicci found this dress while shopping and just had to get it for the newest girl in the family. Isn't it adorable? She is already growing out of it... sad! But playing dress up with your little girl certainly is a lot of fun!


My cute family at Grandma Christine's house.

Thomas and Mary Alice

Charge!

Some random photos

Amazing how when an infant comes into a family, the parents start sleeping like infants, themselves - falling asleep anywhere at anytime for short, little cat naps. I guess you just have to get your sleep where and when you can!

Thomas LOVES poppyseed bread... the picture says it all.

Since the baby has come, John has made a real effort to get quality one-on-one time with Thomas so that he doesn't feel so left out. This is one of their recent activities... a pirate snowman. Tom was thrilled with it - until the recent warm spell melted it completely.

Playing Catch-up - Dec. 2008 (Pre-Christmas)

Ok, following along my chronological route, here are the photos from December, before Christmas.

Thomas in the hospital, holding his baby sister. He really enjoys holding her, rocking her, and singing to her.

Grandma's House

We went and stayed a week at my parent's house during the second week of December. It was great for Tom - who loves being spoiled, and it was a big help to me, as John was busy with finals that week. Thanks for letting us invade your house!

Grandma Bradshaw giving Mary Alice her bath. She loved it when Grandma bathed her (and never cried!), and Grandma seemed to enjoy that time, too.

Here is Tom making a Christmas graham cracker train with his Grandma Bradshaw and Aunt Becca. Tom loved this activity! He was torn, though - between making a train (his obsession right now) and eating the yummy candy. Hard choice.


Another train. This time, Tom lined up the chairs and stools in the kitchen and coerced his aunts Teresa, Amy, and Becca into riding the train with him.

An exhausted trio... While watching the obviously riveting "Frosty-The Snowman" movie, Tom, Grandma Bradshaw, and Mary Alice fell asleep in the chair. It was too cute not to take a picture of.

Ogden Train Depot

After John's finals were over, he joined us in Layton and we took Tom to see the train depot in Ogden. It was definitely a good trip for Tom, who loved all the trains and cried bitterly when it was time to go.

Dad and Tom next to a train.

Exploring the train...

Tom attempting to "drive" the train.

Playing Catch-up - Fall 2008

Well, since I have a pile of pictures accumulated that I haven't posted (since October! crazy...) I thought I would put them up now. And since I work as a cataloger and therefor have super-anal tendencies, they will be in chronological order since last fall. So, please pardon the posting about Halloween three months later! Here are the highlights of Fall 2008.


Halloween 2008

So, here is our little pirate. Being really into swords and guns, and a huge fan of the movie "Princess Bride," Tom was a pirate for Halloween. This is one of the most adorable pictures of him - if I do say so myself.

Tom and his Aunt Lindsey dressed up for Halloween. He went over to Lindsey's house (one of his favorite places to go) to show off his costume before trick or treating - and Lindsey showed off her's as well. Aren't they cute? But you will have to ask Lindsey what it is that she dressed up as... I forget now.

Amy's Mission Call - Nov. 2008

We went to Suzanne and Teresa's house to watch Amy open her mission call. It was a rather exciting night - with our family and her roommates all coming to watch her open her letter. She was called to the Harrisburg, Pennsylvania mission and will be leaving Feb. 25.


Everyone looking to read Amy's call. Teresa (with the Pepsi can...), Amy, Becca (texting), Nichole, and Amy's roommate.

Suzanne and Becca on that fun-filled night.

Random Thomas shots - Fall 2008

Here is our imaginative Tom - prepping to perform surgery on his injured train. Note the attention to detail, with the blanket acting as a table cloth and his glove and hat on (we couldn't find his surgeon's Halloween outfit from last year and had to make due with what we could scrounge up.)

And the surgery begins...

John's goal was to build a tower using every single one of Tom's blocks. Tom was very excited about this and danced around John the entire time he was constructing his masterpiece. His excitement, however, was not at the construction but at the promise of demolition once his dad was finished... and here you can witness the joy!

Thank you...

...to our favorite Amy! For letting us kidnap you and make you our
nanny/cook/chauffeur/errand boy. Four nights of uninterrupted sleep - it was almost too decadent for new parents. You really were a tremendous help!

Some updates

Well, I haven't had a chance to get to the store to develop any recent photos, but the film rolls sure are starting to pile up - so when I do, there should be plenty to show. Of course, they will all be of Tom and Mary Alice, but the kids are much cuter than parents, so it won't be a terrible loss.

It has been a bit of a rough road since Mary Alice was born. The hardest part was losing my Grandpa Bradshaw. He had been ill for a long time, but it was still hard to think of him as gone. Going back to my Grandma's house after the burial was the hardest part - I was always expecting to see him come through the back door, looking for the keys to the four wheeler or calling out for "Mother" to come for a drive in the truck. He was such a vibrant man and we will miss him terribly. It was amazing how wonderful my dad's family was, though - they all took turns going and staying with Grandma and Grandpa during the last part of his illness and they have all rallied around Grandma since Grandpa passed away. I am truly amazed at the level of care, honor, and sacrifice that has been shown during this hard time. What a great legacy to both Grandpa and Grandma, to have raised such a good family. I only hope we can do the same.

Since coming home from the holidays, we have had to adjust to life with two kids on our own. Prior to the holidays, we had John's mom or my mom taking care of us - and I was starting to think that having two kids wasn't really all that different from one. But we are really starting to feel the difference now. We are truly grateful to our moms for taking such awesome care of us. Amazing how you never get over needing your Mommy, isn't it?

Mary Alice has been growing quite a bit and is such an engaging baby. She smiles all the time and is rather interactive for being only five weeks old. She has been an easy going baby and endures the "loving" from her big brother with good grace. She has been ill of late, though, with a rather nasty cold. So much so, that we ended up taking her to the Emergency Room on Saturday night. But it looks like she is finally on the mend. What a relief!

Tom has been really good to his little sister, though his adjustments to sharing the attention have been seen in other aspects of his behavior. He has been a bit more defiant of parental authority of late. It came to loggerheads the other day with a decided victory on his side. John was insisting that Tom eat some dinner (a continual battle for us) and Tom was loudly declaring that he was playing and did not want to eat. When John laid down the law and made it a choice between dinner and going to bed, Tom loudly replied "No! I am the king!" How do you respond to that? We never did - it took a good 10 minutes before we could stop laughing and by then Tom had gone back to playing.