Baxter Batman Steve Louie John Thelin

At approximately 8:00 am on Thursday the twentieth of December 2012, Baxter Returned to our heavenly father, where he met with Pacino and Guster. Baxter was constantly on the move, he didn't want to be tied down, he wanted to explore and see what the world was about. We didn't pick Baxter out, he picked us out. When we arrived at the pet store he was the rat who ran to us while the others scurried away. Baxter was the kindest and most loving rat we have known, with in seconds of meeting someone he would be licking and loving them. Baxter has been a guardian over our family, and will continue to do so. His favorite thing to do was climb up to the highest perch and lookout over the room keeping a watch on us all. Baxter reveled in our company, he wanted to be with us every hour of every day. If by chance you passed his caged he would bound up to the ledge by the door and wait for you to pull him out, and no one could say no to that. When doing homework he would curl up as close as he could to you and then get closer, he would then lay there for hours. Baxter comes from a famous family, his parents where the rats pulled out of the house in L.A. California shown on A&E's Hoarders. It was his city rat mentality that kept him strong and fighting until the end, as in Dylan Thomas' famous poem Do not go gentle into that good night. 

                         

10 Months!

December 13th our little miss turned 10 months.  We can't believe what an amazing little girl we have, she is absolutely darling.

Yes, she is hand feeding herself yogurt...

Right about now she is:

• Doing that funny crawl where uses one knee and one foot
• Cruises using furniture and stands all on her own for short periods playing
• Signing for more and up and giving a huge cheezy grin when her answer is yes
• We're convinced that she's said "hi dad," "all done," and "yes"
• Waves "hi" and gives high fives
• Sleeps through the night
• Wakes up obnoxiously early at 6:30 or 7:00 no matter what time she goes to bed
• Loves eating and loves playing with food
• She has six teeth (four top, two bottom).  They make her look like a completely different child
• If we eat it then she gives it a second shot and will usually devour it from there
• She knows just how adorable she is and uses it to her full advantage
• Has learned now matter how cute she is, she cannot hit mommy in the face (I was impressed how easy this was to teach her)
• Lays all over us when we read her bedtime stories
• ...Obviously there is a ton more that I want to gush about, but there's just not enough time in the day.

On to the ten month pictures!  Merry Christmas!

Also, we love taking a trip to San Francisco during the Christmas season so we took a break from our insane schedules and made the trip today.  Tim's painting class met up at the De Young museum in Golden Gate Park in the morning where we showed off Adelaide to his classmates.  Tim was able to take time to sketch while Adelaide and I walked around.  Everyone in the museum was so surprised how well behaved this little ten month old was.

After that, we headed to China Town and wondered through the shops.  We really wanted to find some little restaurant to find tasty food at.  We stopped in on shop and bought some delicious steamed pork buns.  If you haven't had them before, they're different because the dough has been cooked by steam rather than backed in the oven, but they are so tasty.  This shop sold huge buns overflowing with pork.  We had our confidence up and stopped in another little restaurant to finish our meal and the food was awful.  It was cold and bland.  Such a waste of money, but an experience!

Adelaide loves it!

We then went to Union Square and were dazzled by all the decorations.  Despite it being crowded, everyone we talked to were so incredibly nice.  We went to Boudin's in the bottom of Macy's to top ourselves off after our less than filling lunch.  We split a delicious clam chowder in a bread bowl and Adelaide got her first taste of sourdough bread.  Adelaide also practice balancing a spoon on her nose!  People all over the restaurant would watch and laugh then point her out to their friends.  I tell you, that girl spreads smiles for miles!

They are so proud of themselves!

Now she's doing it all on her own, such talent.

Our bit of exciting news..

Well two things actually...

1) We have our final Christmas plans! After going back and forth on what to do and whether we'd be able to leave this day or that day we have come to a conclusion. Now the second bit of news is really how we came to the conclusion for our first bit of news but I will go into that later. Our plans for Christmas are as follows (with hopefully no more changes):

We will leave Utah on Sunday, December 23rd bright and early! It's just a good thing we are all use to getting up early because we are gonna try to leave by 7am. We should hopefully be in Apple Valley no later then 5pm, we are keeping our fingers crossed! Upon arrival we expect to relax and of course catch up with everyone...oh and for Abby to have lots of cousins to play with!

We then plan on spending Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday spending time with family, creating new memories, enjoying delicious food, opening presents, and whatever else is thrown at us. As mentioned in a previous post we are game for whatever everyone else wants to do so bring on the fun!

Lastly we plan on leaving on Thursday, December 27th (aka Sarah's big day). If we could stay longer (at least to celebrate the day) we would but Matt and I both need to get back to work, gotta save up those vacation days for some little thing happening in March. Oh and I believe the plan is for Danielle to come home with us. But that's it, we are excited we get to extend our trip by a day and that we have our plans in stone. For anyone that knows me having to be in limbo this long has not been fun!

This brings me to our second bit of news...

2) Matt got a promotion! It's a funny story because we have been applying to jobs for quite awhile now. Matt's likes the company he works for but just doesn't make the kind of money he deserves (or that we need to make ends meet).  Well he got a job offer yesterday (Tuesday) and we were ecstatic! Today when he told his boss that he would need to put in his two weeks notice his boss told him she would try to match what they were paying him and give him paid time off and holidays. I think Matt and I were both taken a little back, definitely a huge compliment! After his boss talked to the CEO she found out that though she couldn't quite match the pay the other job was offering she could give him a pretty decent raise and paid time off and holidays. She also told Matt she would look at giving him another raise in a couple months. Well we had a tough choice to make, keep the job he has where he already has 6 months under his belt and he knows what he is doing and enjoys the people he works with or go with a new company that can pay slightly more but is unknown. Well after taking the day to think and pray about it Matt decided to stay with his current job and we are so excited! They are going to start paying him what he deserves which takes a lot of worry and stress off of us with little Liam on the way. This has also made it so we could finalize Christmas plans which makes us a lot happier as well. Oh and he will get holiday pay for Christmas which allows us to extend our trip by an extra day.

Well that is our news, we are just feeling so blessed right now and can't wait to see everyone in just a few short weeks. 

We love you,

Matt and Britt 

MisChristCommunicatmas

  So it seems like everyone, Except Elder Tim of course, is planning on coming home for Christmas!! And by home, yes I do mean Southern California. And by southern California I mean AppleValley, yuk, and hopefully a trip or two up to the snow in beautiful, wonderful, Big Bear. Anticipating this awesome time we'll have to celebrate together, I would like everyone to respond to this post with their plans in order to avoid our inevitable miscommunications. Be as specific as possible with dates you'll be around and such.

  We are so looking forward to seeing you all! With my classes ending Dec 16th and not starting until Jan 7th, we'll be more flexible as well. One big thing that needs to be worked out is the sleeping arrangements for  these poor pregnant ladies, the other girls, and the guys and of course all the kiddos (lots of kids, this is going to be awesome). Luke, Leona, and Emma can't wait to see their cousins and are so excited for Christmas.

  One idea I want to pass by is for Christmas Eve dinner. Sarah and I have done this every year since we've been married and it's spiritual as well as fun and the kids really enjoy it too. We have what we call a Joseph and Mary dinner. We cook fish (with lemon and garlic) and get pita bread, cheese, olives and grape juice. Then we lay a blanket on the floor and watch "The Nativity" while eating dinner. I know Mom and Dad will also want to show their art presentation as well, so we need to fit that in. And for Christmas morning Sarah and I want to try making cinnamon rolls again (this time thoroughly cooked).

  Obviously a trip up to go sledding has to be planned as well. And don't forget Sarah's Bday. We are up for suggestions, but I wanted this to be a beginning to get all the kinks worked out so that we can maximize our fun once everyone starts arriving.

  Love you all! -Thom

Baby Elephunk Walk

Post Post Halloween

Tim and I were pretty lame and didn't have time to come up with a a costume...I mean I was a house wife (wearing an old camp shirt, sweatpants, barefoot, rubber gloves, in the kitchen doing dishes all day) and Tim went as a werewolf not during the full moon (flannel shirt...).  At least the cutest member of the family dressed up!

 I can't upload the video...I'll see if Tim can do it on his computer.

Snow Day!

With out blizzard this past weekend (hit us on Friday until Monday, we got over 8 inches) we decided on Saturday to take Abby to play in the snow. It was the first time she played in the snow (last year she was too little and we barely got any snow at all) and she absolutely LOVED it! At first she was a little scared but soon she got up her nerve and had a blast! I am so glad I was able to play with her and have such a fun Saturday with my girl.

And lastly what snowy day would be complete without homemade cinnamon rolls? YUM!

Halloween again... This time from Big Bear!

Here are some pics from us in the mountains. The kids had such a good time. Luke even told me that he loved his costume and that everyone would think he was the real Batman, because he was. And Leona's hair turned out perfectly. We dyed it then left it in curlers for a day and voila!

Happy Halloween Everyone! I'm also putting in some extra pictures of Merida and Batman playing soccer. They're awesome, I know.