Michael David Thomas is 1 years old!!!

Well, it is official. Michael David Thomas is a toddler! I am constantly amazed at just how much mischief such a small little guy can get into! In spite of his naughtiness he is incredibly cute! Here are some of the cute things he does.







Mikey loves his belly button and twirls his finger in it has he goes to sleep. He loves the belly button song from veggie tales and his whole face lights up every time he sees the clip!




Anytime he does something naughty and is caught in the act he runs away as fast as he can giggling!



Mikey loves to be outside and in the dirt. He can open all of our doors now including the doors leading outside so we have to be very vigilant about making sure the doors are locked.










Mikey is very independent but loves to give hugs and kisses. Often when I am cooking he will walk up behind me and hug me.

He adores Aiden and wants to do everything Aiden does including playing with big boy toys and dressing up. Every morning he runs in to Aiden’s room to wake him up by hollering “Aiden”!











He is talking quite a bit more now, new additions to his vocabulary include, night night, la lu (love you), uh oh!, oh that!, what’s that, eye, dance, hot, and Shhhhhhhhh while holding his finger up to his lips. He also responds to question like, “where’s mommy’s eye” or “what do doggies say”.

Mikey loves music, he loves to sing and dance. We bought him a harmonica which he walks around and plays, or he’ll take a straw and use it as a whistle. He will twirl and dance when I turn on music and tell me to “dance, dance”. He loves elmo and will sing “la la la, la la la” along with the video.



He is so cleaver, he climbs up on everything, chairs, tables, couches. We had to take the ladder off of Aiden’s bunk bed because he kept climbing to the top bunk and we just can’t keep up with him.

He is very smart and observant and emulates much of what we do. One cute thing he just started doing was sitting on the couch watching TV trying to flip through channels.




Mikey loves shoes and take advantage of every opportunity he has to try on the closest pair!

Aiden Updates!

This has been a busy year for Aiden, so many exciting things going on!
In March Aiden started horse riding lessons. He fell in love with this black miniature pony named Ebony which he of course called the Batman Pony. Aiden did pretty good and was able to trot on the pony but after about four weeks of lessons Aiden decided he was done.







In May Aiden graduated from preschool at the top of his class!! Aiden started kindergarten in June and is doing great! He is reading and writing cursive at 4!!!!



Aiden also just finished Soccer camp! He has had a great time learning to play and learning various soccer techniques. His favorite part of camp was the last day when they had a water fight with the coaches! He will start playing with a team in the fall.







Aiden is quite the social butterfly and is very popular in the neighborhood. He is always asking to play at his various friends house. His cutting the umbilical has been hard on mommy because I still think of him as my baby boy.



Aiden is an awesome big brother, he loves to play with Mikey and Mikey loves to play with him. Mikey is always very distressed when Aiden goes outside to play without him. Aiden has taught Mikey the joys of dressing up in costumes, playing with motorcycles and cars, and getting good and dirty outside. Aiden has an incredible imagination and it is so entertaining to watch him play!

9 months and walking!!



Technically Mikey Davey was walking by 8 months and is now unstoppable!! It is hard to believe that in just a short time my little darling will be a toddler. He is growing so fast and is such a delight in our life. Here are some of the cute things he is doing......




Mikey loves to wave hi and good-bye and recently started doing kissy lips and noises and he loves to give slobbery kisses! He has quite the vocabulary for a 9 month old which includes Mom, Dada, Aiden, Annie, No, and Maggie. He also shakes his head no and dances on queue when I tell him to shake his booty.



Mikey loves to be outside and wants to do everything Aiden does. We have a little car stroller that he absolutely loves! He makes car noises and rocks back and forth in it. If it weren’t for his seat belt he’d also stand-up in it. Any time he sees Aiden’s bike or scooter laying around outside he makes a b-line for it as fast as his little legs will carry him. He also loves to smell flowers, something his daddy taught him, and will walk over to my flowers and stick is nose in them to smell them, it is so cute!



His new favorite food is avocados and in general prefers veggies to fruit. He is now drinking from a sippy cup like a pro and would rather feed himself than have mommy feed him.



Mikey is such an animal lover! He gets excited any time he see’s any animal and is always anxious to pet them. When Sam puts Maggie to bed at night Mikey always plays with her at the stairs sticking his fingers or toes through the railing tempting Maggie to lick him.



At Mikey’s last baby well visit he pasted all his milestones with flying colors. The doctor was very impressed and said he doesn’t often see children his age walking! He is now 28.25” long putting him in the 49th percentile for height and 20.19lbs putting him in the 44th percentile for weight. It is so fun to watch him grow and change!

6-8 Months!



Being a mother of two is quiet the handful! I meant to be very repentant for not doing a better job on keeping up with Aiden’s baby book by doing a better job with Michael David’s and find that I just can’t seem to keep up! Here are the latest updates on Michael David!

Michael David never did scoot; once he learned to roll from tummy to back he just wouldn’t do tummy time. He would roll around on the floor to get what he wanted although it did get frustrating for him.

By Michael David’s 6 month baby well visit he was exceeding all milestones with flying colors according to his pediatrician. He was 27.25 inches long putting him in the 77th percentile for height, and 17.77lbs putting him in the 54th percentile for weight.

In February Mikey started crawling and forever changed our lives! He is absolutely fearless and full of curiosity! He is especially interested in things that make noise such as the hair dyer and vacuum cleaner. His favorite rooms in the house are Aiden’s bedroom and the office. He has a keen sense of when they are accessible and is in pursuit faster than a blink of an eye.



He is an excellent eater and is willing to eat any vegetable I put before him. Lately he is much more interested in real food than baby food. His favorite two favorite foods are cheerios and popcorn.



In March Mikey got his first tooth with a second following at the tail end of the month. He has started to walk by furniture and walks all around the house with his walker. He has taken a couple steps on his on but only because he was tricked into it.



He has become quiet the talker. When he’s happy he says “da da da” when he’s upset he says “mum mum mum” when he’s in deep conversation he says “doidel doidel doidel” or “yi yi yi!” More recently he has started screaming! Yes screaming when he is either excited or mad.

He is much more interested in Aiden’s toys than he is his own. He loves to play with Aiden’s matchbox cars while making car noises by blowing raspberries. He also loves to experiment; I wonder what will happen if I tap this toy on the piano, or I wonder what this toy tastes like, what will happen if I throw this on the floor.





Michael David is an absolute Joy and it has been such an awesome experience to watch him grow and develop his personality. He has been such a blessing for our family and has brought us all closer together!

Aidenisms!



On the drive home one day Aiden announces "Mom, I can't read!" the next day Aiden says "Mom! I can read now!" I said "what can you read?" He says "at!" He told me to spell a word for him so I wrote go and asked him what it spelled he said "guh Oh!"

I'm totally against junk food for kids but occasionally I let Aiden get a treat. The other day Aiden picked out a hostess cupcakes as a treat. When he bit into them he said "Mom, look! It has mayonnaise!"

Aiden still idolizes Michael, at bed time the other day Aiden says "Mom does dad usually sleep with his socks off?" he wanted to make sure he was just like dad.

Aiden and I were looking at pictures and he see's a picture of Michael David and exclaims "Oooh! There's bat baby! he's soooo darling!"

I was talk with Aiden on the phone while he was at Grandma's and he says "Mom, I made the baby a boat that transforms into a stroller!!"

I was trying to get Aiden to clean his room, I told him I would give him a surprise if he cleaned it and he says to me “Is it not a hug mom?!”

Aiden and I were playing with Michael David pretending we were eating cake, I said mine was Chocolate, Aiden said his was Vanilla then he said "Michael David said his is Cherry in his head."

Aiden has become very interested in the human body, especially the brain and skeleton. The other day at bed time he said "Mom, I don't want to be a boy, I just want to be a skeleton boy." Another night in the tub he was telling me something and said "My skeleton was thinking that."

Aiden was singing in the van and starts giggling and says “Mikey is thinking Aiden what the heck are you singing!?” He laughed some more and said “Mikey is hilarious!”

Aiden asked me “Mom, if you smell a kitty will you be allergic?”

Missing Michael!

Over the last 6 months I’ve been really spoiled in that I’ve only had to spend 2 days apart from Michael. Now that things are back in full swing at work he has to travel again. Today is going on five days away from my sweetheart and these are the top ten things I miss most about Michael:

1. Good morning hugs and kisses
2. Putting my cold feet against his warm body at night
3. Making out in the elevator at work
4. Holding hands
5. Mid-day lunch breaks
6. Cuddling in front of the TV after getting the kids in bed
7. Date night
8. Smelling his cologne on the baby
9. His laugh and his smile
10. Our talks on the way into and from the office

Michael gets home tonight… I can hardly wait!

Christmas festivities!

Christmas is one of my favorite holidays, if not my favorite. There is a sort of magic that comes with this particular holiday that is infectious. I am really big on traditions; I think they help capture the Christmas magic. I liken Christmas to a wedding; you spend so much money and time preparing all for one day in the end that goes by really fast. It is for that reason we celebrate this holiday as long as possible starting the day after Thanksgiving.



Every year our ward does a Christmas Party and they have the Primary children participate in a program. This was the first year Aiden was old enough to participate and I absolutely loved watching him sing!! (I tired to load video but it was too big)

One of the first activities we did as a part of our Christmas festivities was making gingerbread houses. Any one that knows me knows that I have a tendency to be cheap or frugal. So instead of buying a kit I bought graham crackers, candy and some squeeze frosting. All and all it wasn’t too bad however we did have a challenge keeping the structures together as we waited for the frosting to dry. Michael kept a pretty good spirit about it even though he had to deal with the frustration of getting the structures to stick!



Since we have young kids it doesn’t make sense to invest in expensive Christmas tree decorations so this year we made some of our own. My siblings and I did this as kids more because we were poor but I had very fond memories of doing this. The ornaments are made from dough with equal parts flour, salt and a little water. You cut out the shapes you like put on a cookie sheet, make a whole to hang them with and slow bake them at 350 degrees – cooking time takes 1-2 hours.

For our neighbors every year we make Christmas candies and this year was no different. We went crazy in the kitchen baking caramel, English toffee, peanut brittle, and chocolate covered pretzels.

I have wanted to make our own stockings for the last couple years but this was the first year I felt Aiden was old enough to appreciate a stocking – we opted not to do them in prior years. We picked out some darling fabric and my AMAZING husband put them together! They turned out absolutely darling and no one could believe they were home made.
A new tradition Michael and I started this year was to purchase one new ornament together. We picked out a cute Santa with a bow on a soft tail Harley-Davidson. That is the motorcycle we would like to buy next.



On Christmas eve we had the family over for dinner. Grandma read a Christmas story and we tucked the kids into bed. Aiden was so excited and said he was going to stay awake so he could see Santa!


In the morning Aiden came running into our room exclaimed “Mom! Santa Came!!” he went running back into the living room and came running back and said “I got new gloves!” which were tucked in his stocking.





After opening presents we made our traditional Christmas breakfast then settled in on the couch to watch my favorite Christmas movie of all time “A Christmas Story!” We had a wonderful Christmas and are so grateful for the opportunity to celebrate the birth of our dear Lord and Savior.