New toy=new pics

Alex got me a new camera for Valentine's Day. He wouldn't have spent that much normally for V-Day, but my old "small" camera was getting bad. His bigger cameras just aren't convenient to pop out when needed quickly. Therefore, I have some new pics and one new quick video of Solomon of course.He's currently very intrigued with our old coffee pot/caraffe container.Grandma Thomas got him "Elmo's Kitchen" for Christmas and he can't get enough of it.Ready for bathtime.. Loves being naked.

I was just going in to get him from a long nap. I love when he wakes up so happy.

Other Stuff: Alex bought a classic car last night that he wants to gradually restore. It's a '64 Chevy Impala. My dad went with us to Hunnewell, KS (population 84 is what I found online) to look at it. It will definitely need some work, but after all, the car is 55 year old! My dad listed off a few cars that he had back in the 60's that would be worth ridiculous amounts of money if he had kept them. Too bad, but seriously, who knew? It should be a fun project and look pretty cool when it's in better shape.

Happy Valentine's Day Everyone!

I told you I would post a V-Day related photo of Solomon and now I've done it. I think the first one is so "Risky Business". Hope you had a great Valentine's Day.

Busy Bees

Life just never seems to slow down for us. The bar stuff is still rolling along. I think the local NBC affiliate is going to do a business news story on us owning Kirby's sometime soon. They're taping it today. It should be fun. Alex is always really good at the soundbite thing.
I wanted to post a picture of Solomon that Alex took a few weeks ago, but he just hasn't had time to "process" them in the program he uses to make them look their best. Hopefully I will get one on here before or on Valentine's Day since that was the purpose of taking them.
I just found out something fun today. My friend, Sara, is pregnant and due in early September. It could be an Aug. 31st baby though.. you never know.
Alex and I have been recycling since the beginning of the year. It's gone really well so far. I didn't want to say we were doing it until we actually were doing it. They have a great one-stop dump it all recycling place that isn't too close to our house, but not so far that we can't go once a month. We are recycling glass, food and beverage cans, plastics, cardboard, mixed paper and plastic sacks. It's just amazing how much less is in our garbage can every week. Alex gives one of his customers the alluminum cans from the bar and we are trying to recycle at least the mixed paper and cardboard (most of it) from the bar as well. So far, it hasn't been too hard. We have the coolest Rubbermaid recycling containers too. I really like their functionality.
Alex's old friend Jason, former Ophil trumpet player, got married last weekend. It was like a mini-reunion and it was a lot of fun to see everyone. Alex was a groomsman, a duty he's held many, many times.
Solomon had a mild case of RSV a few weeks ago, but he's feeling much better now and has returned to his mostly crazy, giggly, silly self. People like my mom keep telling me to cut his hair a little bit, but it's so cute right now, so I'm not sure. Does anyone have thoughts? It's not like he has to go to a job interview anytime soon! Solomon has been taking Tumble Tots class once a week. It mainly consists of him running around and loving all of the open space. He isn't quite ready for the parallel bars in competition but I do expect him to be just about any day.
Work has been crazy again lately and I expect it to remain that way for a few more weeks and then maybe there will be a slight lull again.
Sara and I are going to my friend, Chenay's baby shower, this weekend. She just had a boy and already has two other girls. Congrats Chad and Chenay ! Then, I'm off on Monday for President's Day! Hooray!
I'm having coffee with Tammy tonight. I haven't seen her in a while.
I have to go run some errands for work, so I'm off.

16+ Months

Things have been in super mega overdrive in the Thomas Family household lately. As most of you know, we bought a bar, Kirby's, in December. Since that time, Alex's already incredibly busy schedule has doubled. It's hard on him and of course a little hard on me and Solomon as well, but we think it will calm down at least by summertime. It seems like there's always something going on with the bar that requires extra attention. For instance, we held the annual "Meat Fest" last weekend. Basically, bands play from open to close and people barbecue outside. This year, Alex added a live auction to raise money to set up a memorial scholarship fund in the late owner's (Steve Schroeder's) name. The scholarship is through WSU and will eventually go to a fine arts student. We raised a lot of money at the auction and through the various donations that people just gave all day long. The place was packed all day and our friend, Sol, generously barbecued all day long (2pm-1am)! Can you imagine doing that!? Exhausting for sure.

This past Saturday, Kirby's played host to a surprise band, Split Lip Rayfield. That was a big deal for us, considering several thousand people had just paid $12-15 the night before to watch them at a well known large venue in Wichita. Again, it was a great night and everyone had a lot of fun.

Back to the title, Solomon turned 16 months on the 15th of this month. He's turning into a little problem solver. I love to watch him try to figure out how things work. He's still loving all of his Christmas toys, especially Elmo's kitchen and his bounce and spin horse. He also loves having us read books to him and it's especially cute when he gives me a book and backs up to sit in my lap. He's learning how to break through all of our barricades which can e a little frustrating at times, but it's funny at the same time. We're taking him to a Tumble Tots class every Wednesday. He's the youngest one in the class so he isn't as "structured" as some of the older kids are but he definitely loves the slide and the wide open spaces to run around. Solomon is also a big fan of shaking his head "no". With few exceptions, on most days he is such a happy little guy and so much fun. Here are a few funny videos.

As for my fun, I had a lot of fun at the Meat Fest last weekend. Alex's friend, Jason, was back from China to get married. It was good to see him. This weekend, I hung out with Abby and Sara F. on Friday night. Saturday, I went to Abby's house and we watched the Miss America pageant and of course made fun of the contestants. Miss Florida was robbed, I swear! :) I've always loved to watch one of those tragic pageants. Yesterday, Alex and I finally caught up on all of our TV/movie viewing. We watched Lost, 24 and Burn After Reading. Lost frustrates me so much, but I guess that's why I like it. Just when a question is answered, another emerges. Ugh...

Back in it

Puppy Love

Sam (our nephew) & Solomon taking a nap (12/26/08)

We are getting back into the swing of things I guess. It's rough though. It was just nice to not have a schedule at all during the break. Work isn't too busy yet, so that's helping.

Solomon is going to start taking Tumble Tots, a gymnastics class for toddlers. It should be fun. I just watched him put his puppy (stuffed) in his little play refrigerator. Then, he just put it in the trunk of his little car. Yet, he seems to like the puppy. I'm not sure if that's how I would treat something I liked! :) He's climbing all over everything, basically trying his best to get up high on something so he can inevitably fall off. It's a little frightening, especially on the things with wheels. He's currently car surfing. He's also babbling non-stop, especially around me and Alex. I wish I knew what he was saying. Sometimes I have an idea, but since he doesn't say many words that I can understand yet, it's hard. His favorite food is currently peanut butter. He snarfs a PB sandwich or PB with crackers. It's a good thing b/c he's not a fan of a lot of meat, so I feel like he gets some protein this way.

Solomon started his new daycare yesterday and it went well. He's now going up to 25 hrs. a week or about 2 1/2 days so that should work out well for me work wise I think.

As for me and Alex, our bar is going well which is a good sign b/c the college kids aren't even back yet. Alex is incredibly busy with his various business ventures. He sometimes only gets 4 hrs. of sleep. :( Hopefully things will slow down soon and some normalcy will return. He may just have to quit one of the contracts that he takes care of.

My friend, Erin, wrote about her New Year's Resolutions on her blog. I have a few as well:

1-Try to lose a few pounds.. really just tone up my tummy.

2-Be more patient with Alex and Solomon and everyone else of course.. even Coco, our dog.

3-Reach out to friends more.

It's almost 2009

Solomon longing to pull off some ornaments.

Zoe posing.. where on earth could she have learned this vital skill?

Solomon in his monkey PJs.

So Christmas has come and gone. We did xmas eve with my parents and then drove up to Lawrence on Christmas day to hang out with Alex's family. It was nice. We now have more toys than ever in our house. It's just a constant mess. I think solomon's favorite toys include Elmo's kitchen, pressing the button on the Crayola marker thing, the piano and the Thomas the Train car thing. However, he plays with almost everything for at least a few minutes a day. Some of the toys are a bit old for him right now, but that's okay. The funniest moment of Christmas day was when I opened a card from Alex's mom that contained money for his college fund. After opening the envelope, I noticed a postcard which had two women talking on the phone pictured. I thought that was odd.. so I turned it over and noticed that she had accidentally placed a "remember your pap smear" card/cervical cancer awareness card in the Christmas card. I announced this and everyone started cracking up. It's just an odd thing to find in a little boy's christmas card. She had also patched up a few holes in some of the Christmas wrapping with return address labels. Hmmm.. still haven't figured that one out completely. I always tell people that this will all be in a book someday. While in Lawrence, we went to see a house where the family had computerized their Christmas lights to match a series of songs. YOu could tune your radio into a station and listen. It took a while, but it was pretty cool. I told Alex to get started on ideas for our display for next year! Then, we laughed, knowing he loathes putting up lights so it's doubtful that it will ever happen.

I got lots of good clothes from my family and a few fun electronics from Alex.. such as an iPhone and a bluetooth headset. He also got me the Roomba vacuum cleaner thing. I love it. I watched it for about 30 minutes the first time it ran. Pretty cool.

My next mission is to get all of the Christmas decor down. I usually leave it up until Jan. 1, but I'm sick of it so I think it will come down tomorrow.

I'm listening to the KU game b/c it's on ESPNU, a channel we don't have.. bummer.

Tomorrow, is NYE. We have some plans for early on, but i'm sure we'll end up at our bar by midnight. Have New Year everyone!

Busy Times

So, I feel like I've been everywhere, but really haven't been any farther away than Dallas. It's just been a really busy couple of weeks between work and Thanksgiving and Solomon and all kinds of other stuff. For instance, we are finalizing our purchase of Kirby's Beer Store, a local bar, this week, so Alex has been really stressed out with all of that stuff. We did manage to find time this weekend to get our holiday picture of Solomon taken. I was also able to get the holiday decorations up last weekend.

This weekend was fun. I went to my friend Jackie's wedding reception. She was married in September in Maui, and another friend of hers held a party for them here. Today, I went on a run in the morning and this afternoon, we went to Brooke and Andy's house for pizza. There were tons of kids there which is always crazy but fun.

Speaking of kids, I have posted a few pictures of my kiddo, Solomon: http://www.haverhillstudios.com/gallery/Solomon-at-14-months

Here's a cute little video of Solomon saying "mommy". :)