Thomas Tidbits...: Christmas in February!

Tap tap tap... is this thing on??? Yes, 2 months of radio silence for the Thomases. I promise, I have good excuses? I honestly can't go into any detail as the past couple of months have been pretty insane and filled with the following:

: Christmas
: Traveled to Santa Rosa post Christmas
: Stomach bug for Eleanor
: Nasty cold/cough for the kiddos
: Ear infection for Eleanor
: Justin and I enjoyed a weekend getaway in NYC
: Roz visits from KC
: Reichles visit from London
: Johnsons visit from Chicago
: Lunds visit from Chicago
: Nasty cold/cough plague our house again
: Double ear infection for Eleanor (again)

Are you still with me? Hopefully the pics below will tell the story of our lives because my memories is a bit shaky these days. We look forward to a somewhat more calm couple of weeks, and then we hit the ground running with more visitors, kids' birthdays, SXSW, etc.

I missed Fisher's 10 month pic - ah, the poor second child. I'll get around to posting a more in depth rundown of Fisher and Eleanor's current stats/tricks/etc soon. For now, I hope this will do...

My expectations were super low for this event. Luckily, I was able to make an appointment with Santa vs waiting in the God awful line. Right up my alley for the Type A scheduler I am! I prepped Eleanor by telling her that this was Fisher's first time meeting Santa and that she'd have to be a good big sister and keep him happy. So, the minute they were plopped on his lap, Eleanor didn't even look at Santa. She leans over to Fisher and says, "It's OK buddy, Santa's nice. Hi brother!"

Fish is skeptical but didn't shed a tear. Eleanor left and exclaimed, "Oh wait, Santa forgot to give me my bike!"

Christmas cookie decorating for friends and teachers. It only took about 9 hours and my sanity. Needless to say, I bought a roll of Pillsbury dough for our family after my exhaustion making cookies for others.

Nana to the rescue as usual... we wouldn't have survived the cookie bonanza without her and Kiki.

Finished product. Personalized melamine plates from my friend's Etsy shop with homemade cookies.

Trail of Lights date with our favorite lady.

Uncle Roz visits from KC

These two crazy cats had the most amazing (almost) 3 years together in Austin. Audrey was our neighbor at Villa Court, and The Beadle Family is our dear friends. They moved to Longview in December to be closer to family. This was our farewell dinner at Home Slice. We miss you!!

My good friend, Lara, and her adorable son, Harry, came to visit from London. While we only had about 24 hours with them, we had a blast. Lara wins super mom for flying solo internationally with a newborn and flying back with a newborn AND her 4 year old solo. I have no words for her heroism!

Christmas Eve three course fondue dinner! What a special Christmas to have Mom and Katie in Austin and to be able to wake up in our own home. Truly amazing.

So proud of her new balance bike.

Wearing pajamas well into the afternoon.

As if the tutu wasn't enough, she insisted on adding a Rudolph nose.

Thomas boys snoozing on the plane en route to Santa Rosa.

The princess infatuation began at this moment. Cousin Elizabeth was nice enough to hand down all of her princess dresses, and Eleanor has been smitten ever since.

This was the only day appropriate (warm enough) for swinging in underwear.

Not warm, but at least we had the beach and sun.

Uncle Nick and his nieces

Snuggling with Uncle Tom

This chick couldn't get enough of the beach.

Cousin Love.

Bama showing E the lay of the land.

Not many pics of these handsome fellas because they were constantly on the move.

We were lucky enough to see the Hales down in Santa Rosa. We had a couple of kid outings and an adult only outing while Bama babysat. Jack and Eleanor are smitten with each other.

Piper and Fisher playing hard to get with one another.

After the warm up lunch, Fish starts getting handsy.

Precious.

Fisher was sick, but as long as he got his bathtime in, he was a happy camper.

Jane was nice enough to arrange for a professional photographer to take some photos of us since the entire family was at the beach. The photographer was remarkable or really good at Photoshop because my kids were a nightmare and snotty nearly the entire shoot.

These never get old.

New infatuation with The Little Mermaid played itself out nicely at the beach.

We didn't make this but used it as a photo op.

Headed out to the park.

First stop during our weekend away in NYC. It was FREEZING, but we had an amazing time.

We pulled our winter gear out of the attic for the occasion.

New York pizza can't be beat.

Full and tired parents out on the town.

Blue skies but blistery cold.

This little lady loves to rock climb now. And her agility is pretty impressive.

One of our favorite things to do - hang at Zilker Park.

Starting to use a sippy cup!

Ryan and Erica Johnson visit for the KU/UT game. We had so much fun, and loved seeing their son, Hudson, and our kiddos hang. Hudson is only a couple of weeks older than Fish.

Buds.

Thomas kids + Hudson sudsing up.

Fisher loved sharing his walker with Hudson.

The Lunds visit! Parents night out started at a brewery in Driftwood - Jester King. Then Stanley's Farmhouse Pizza followed. Delicious food and amazing company.