Merry Christmas Everyone!

Yes, unfortunately the rumors are true. There is no Christmas letter this year. Due to the lousy economic conditions it was the victim of budget downsizing. The good news, however, is that we have applied for bail out money from the Federal Reserve and thus fully expect the letter to appear next year in even better shape.

There was actually a draft of the letter - but Ben the cat destroyed our only copy in a fit of editorial rage about the way a "talent" like his was being portrayed. Next year we will remember to put a cone on him around Christmas time.

Truthfully it's been incredibly hectic this month as we get ready for our impending move to Tulsa (see below) and the holidays and we decided instead of a letter this year to introduce those of you that haven't already been here to our blog!

From the whole Thomas family we wish everyone a merry Christmas and a happy New Year!

My Kingdom For A Sneeze!

I looked over at Gray last night during dinner and found him sticking a pea up his nose. At first I thought it was kind of funny and quickly took this picture, and got the pea out. Then I realized that he had been doing this for a little while and that there was a whole pea patch up his nose. After pushing a few out and having a couple more come out on their own I thought we were safe. Later when we were getting him ready for bed I realized that there was one more that was too far up for me to get too. How do you get a 20 month old to sneeze? Well, sucking at the pea with a bulb syringe, squirting saline up the other nostril, putting ground pepper under his nose, shining a bright light in his face, and faking sneezes to get him to copy me just made him giggle and squirm (mind you that the pea didn't bother him at all). After consulting dad, a mommy friend (thanks Bunnyface), two books and paging the nurse hotline. I decided we would have to go to the ER. While getting ready the pepper we had been sniffing got to me and I sneezed. Then I hear a "Choo" sound, look down and what do you know, Gray copied me and the pea had come flying out! Ah, the adventures of parenthood.

Wagons Ho

The Thomas family is moving to Tulsa, Oklahoma.
You read that right, Tulsa. Robert will be starting a new job in January as the CIO (Chief Investment Officer) for the George Kaiser Family Foundation. You can learn about the foundation at www.gkff.org. He will move down there right after the first of the year and live in an apartment while we look for a house. I have to finish collecting data for my dissertation so it will be a few more months before Gray and I join him. My mom and George have decided to move to Tulsa as well and have just signed a lease on a gorgeous apartment in downtown Tulsa, so we aren’t losing all of our child sitting help. We will miss Seattle, but are really excited to be part of the amazing work that the GKFF is doing for early childhood education and health-care among other projects.
Tulsa is a really nice up-and-coming little city. It doesn't have the traffic issues I found in both LA and Seattle so that will be a nice change for me. It has lots of beautiful art deco buildings (there's even a Frank Lloyd Wright house), a river running through one side of the city with 20 miles of park along its banks. It has theaters, a new stadium, and a ballet and it even has at least 3 Sushi restaurants. I also made sure that it has a dance studio that teaches adult classes before I agreed to move. I will send out our new contact information once we get settled so that you can all make plans to come visit us.

Election 2008 - Starting them young

I know it's fashionable to vote by mail in ballot but I still love going to vote in person. So, today Gray got to have his first voting experience when he went with me to my voting location. He ejoyed the attention he got from all of the volunteers and especially loved being able to walk underneath the voting booths. Maybe for the next presidential election I'll try explaining what it's all about, do you think 5 is too young to understand politics?

Happy Halloween

Here are pictures from our Halloween adventure. We met our friends Tom and Yaya at a local outdoor mall. Had dinner and then hit the stores for some trick or treating. Gray picked up on the idea pretty quickly and was very good at saying thank you (with sign language). However, he did not seem to like actually carrying the candy. After each stop he took out the new piece and handed it to me. The only piece he showed interest in was the grape lollipop so I let him suck on it for a few minutes until he became distracted and then I tossed it. He also loved having the chance to play the big musical instruments they have at the Town Center. I think it was a very successful Halloween, Gray had lots of fun and I got to eat most of his candy!

Hitting the pumpkin patch

Last year we waited so long to get our pumpkins that our choices were pretty slim. So this year we hit the patch early and were rewarded by a plethora of big, beautiful pumpkins! One of Gray's favorite words right now is "Ba" (Ball). He spent the whole time we were there pointing at pumpkins and shrieking BA, BA, BA! His only disappointment was that he couldn't move the wheelbarrow like daddy could. We can just tell that he is desperate to be a big boy, we just tell him "maybe next year buddy"! Now we will have to see what he thinks of carving his Ba's.

First skinned knees

Now that he has mastered walking Gray is working on running. The other day while running down the path at the park he took a header and recieved his first two skinned knees! One more sign that he isn't my baby anymore.

It seems that it doesn't matter how much you try and raise a well rounded boy
they are all going to end up as sports fanatics. Here is a game that Gray invented the other day and has been obsessed with ever since. It's usually played with this beach ball but really any object that he can lift above his head is up for grabs.

Soccer is Hard

Gray had his first soccer practice last weekend. Some day he will get the idea that the balls are for kicking not for throwing. In the meantime, he enjoys playing red light/green light, stacking cones, parachutes and heart to heart chats with coach Hannah (if only she understood what he was saying). Dad is really enjoying sharing this activity with Gray.

In Japan

Robert and I went to Japan for a week to attend our friend's wedding. We spent a day in Tokyo having sushi for breakfast and visiting the fish and electronic markets. Then we took the bullet train down to Kyoto for the wedding. Let me tell you the Japanese know how to do a wedding right. After the ceremony came the formal reception, then we moved on to the second reception at a bar, then the younger people went to a second bar before ending the night having noodles at midnight. Congrats Tom and Yaya, the whole day was beautiful and a blast! We spent a day sightseeing in Osaka and attending a Tigers vs. Tokyo Giants Baseball game. Then, after a day of touring Kyoto's castles and shopping districts we hit the town which included several raucous hours singing Kareoke (even Robert participated). The next day we headed to a hotsprings hotel where we ate our meals in the traditional Japanese style sitting on cushions on the floor, bathed in the hotsprings, wore cotton kimonos everywhere (sooo comfortable) and slept on futons. The whole week was a wonderful introduction to Japan for the both of us (Thanks again Tom and Yaya for all of your hard work) we will be back.

Gray and Holly

A picture of Gray and his nanny, whom he adores. Thank you Holly for taking such good care of our precious son!

Gray's baptisim

I'm way behind in getting my pictures organized but I still wanted to share this one. Gray was baptized at Robert's family's church in May. It was a very nice day. After the service we had a lunch with many family friends at the Thomas' house.

Visiting the Larson's in Ithaca NY

I had no idea that it had been so long since I last posted. I will try to catch up quickly.
In the middle of August we went to visit the Larson's in Ithaca, NY for the third summer in a row. Lucky for us our college friends Courtney May Matthews and Ed Reilly happened to be getting married in Ithaca so we were able to attend. Not only was their wedding a rock'n good time but it was great to see so many old friends. Other than that we visited the farmer's market with Nic and Jeff, playing in the lake, taking a boat ride (thanks again Michael) and getting to hang with the whole Larson clan.

Robert's Soccer Game

Gray and I went to watch Robert play soccer a couple of weekends ago. Gray was so excited that he kept trying to run out on the field and join in the game.

Fun in the fountain

I have been growing a little bit tired of always going to our little local park so I decided to branch out and try some of the other parks in the area. We found a very cool one yesterday with this fountain. A bunch of jets shoot out water in different directions and you never know which one is going to do it next. We were not prepared to get wet yesterday so we went back today with an extra change of clothes and let Gray at them. Here is the result. We will definately have to do it again. Next time we will bring our own bucket.

Arlington Fly-In

Last weekend we went with Grandma and Gramps Thomas to the Arlington Fly-In. We got to eat sno-cones, look at airplanes and watch an air show. Even Gray watched the planes trailing smoke and doing loop-d-loops.

Game night

Friday night our friends Joe and Kyla came over for dinner and a game of "The Settlers of Catan". Kyla whipped us all! Congrats but I am calling for a rematch and next time you can just have the longest road.

4th of July

On the 4th of July Nana, Gray and I spent the afternoon at the Seattle Center. We had lunch at the center house, played in the Children's Museum, rode the merry-go-round (which Gray was really not sure about), and then went through the Science Fiction Museum to see if there was anything new. We got a picture of Nana and Gray in front of the Mars exhibit, of course.

Digital Scrapbooking

I have decided to join the world of scrapbookers but since I can see myself spending way too much time and money in my local craft shop I am going to try digital scrapbooking. With lots of help from my friend Rachel here are my first two clumsy attempts.

Shoot'n around

Every once in awhile I spend some time playing around with my camera in an attempt to figure out just what all of those buttons do. Here are some of the products of my fiddling. This is my favorite trick, you can make it show the one color you pick and the rest is black and white. Thanks to our PEPS friends for being my guinea pigs.

I also realized the other day that I can hold down the big silver button and it keeps taking pictures, about 1 every second. Isn't technology great?!

Kick'n around

Summer has finally arrived in Seattle and it has come with a vengence. It has been over 90 degrees for two days now and when you don't have air conditioning that is really hot! We are trying to get outside and soak up some much needed vitamin D. Now that Gray is walking, Robert is very excited to get him kicking. AYSO here we come!

Our Family Day

The weekend before last we had a very fun family day. First we went to Gray's swimming class together, then after his nap he went to an open house at his gym so we could show Daddy what Gray does during class.

Gray's New Ride

Gray amazes me. He goes for awhile without doing anything new and then he will do 10 new things all at once. Today he figured out how to pull himself up on, and then get his leg over, his walker/car. Boy was he proud of himself!

Here comes Gray!

Look out world, here comes Gray! He has been slowly working up to walking by himself but has, up until today, been unwilling to really go for it on his own. We were at the mall and I went into the dressing room when I got out Dad had him practically running by himself!

Benny likes it!

To Ben's great relief Gray has gotten very good at petting gently.

Out on the town!

I got to spend all week doing fun things with Gray while I was taking care of him full time. We went to the zoo with Nana on Tuesday. Then on Wednesday we went to the Seattle Children's Museum. Thank you to the Larson's for our wonderful Christmas present. We both had a blast and we now have a membership so we will be back many times. Plus, did you know that Gray had his own tour bus company? ;)

Visiting the Farm

We have finally started to get some really beautiful weather mixed in with our rain so yesterday we took the opportunity to visit a local farm. We saw bunnies, goats, chickens, horses and a cow. Gray is really starting to get his "mooo" down.

Grayden's First Birthday Party

We celebrated Gray's first birthday with a family party. He got lots of lovely presents and had fun playing with everyone. He started out very slowly on the cake, picking at the frosting. It wasn't until he got to the cake itself that he started cramming it in.

Sushi Dinner

Unwritten

I am adding in this post just for posterity . This is a video of the only time Robert and I performed together on stage. He and our friend Mason kindly agreed to help us out by being lifters in this piece. It is from the Kirkland Dance Center show in the fall of 2006 (I was 3 months pregnant).

Swimming Lessons

Gray and I have been taking swim lessons every Saturday morning for about 6 months now. He seems to be getting pretty comfortable in the water although he is always very serious during the class. I don't know if he just takes his swimming seriously or is afraid that I will drop him and he will drown.

Check out my Slide Show!

Birthday Party #1

Today we had our Mommy and Baby group over for a Birthday party for the four oldest kids. After lunch we tried finger painting with yogurt, some of them digged it while other thought that we were crazy!

Happy First Birthday to: A.J.

Ella and Gray

and to Will!

Are you kidding me?

Do not adjust your computer screens, yes it is April 18th 2007, yes those are hyacinths blooming in our garden, and yes that white stuff is snow! This is supposedly a record for our area, it is certainly the first time that I remember seeing snow in April since I moved to Seattle. It will be interesting to see if it sticks around for tomorrow.

Walking at the Little Gym

Gray has been taking "gymnastics" since last fall. He is learning to walk on a balance beam, do somersaults, we play with balls and a parachute, it is lots of fun for both of us. His newest trick is that he will walk all by himself between the parallel bars. This is especially exciting for me because he still refuses to walk along the couch by himself.

What a feeling...

Robert participated in the Aerlift charity show again this year. Here is the video. He is the second performer on the rope closest to the camera wearing black pants, teal shorts and a white t-shirt. Congrats everyone, it came together really well and your costumes are fabulous!

One last trip to Whistler

Last week we took one last drive up to Whistler, B.C. We rented a condo with our friends, Tom, Joe, Kyla, Chai and Robert's sister Megan. A full but fun house. The only glitch was the case of stomach flu that Gray brought up with him, passed on to me, Robert, Joe and Tom. Thank you everyone for helping us take care of Gray while I was indisposed and I am so sorry that we infected you.

Congrats Dr. Nif!

My best friend from school successfully defended her dissertation yesterday and can now be officially called Dr. Marsh. We had great fun celebrating this momentous occasion. I am so proud of you Nif, you are an inspiration to anyone facing major obstacles on the way to their goal!