Too many blessings?

Ok - I have a ton to blog about from Christmas and I promise to do that super soon but meanwhile I just had to say something.
This morning as I was cleaning and getting the kids clothes gathered up to do the 12th load of laundry in 2 days I just started laughing. I seriously felt like the luckiest woman on earth. I have dreamed my whole life of having these beautiful kids and wonderful husband. I have it! I sometimes still just feel shocked by that. I feel so grateful and so loved by my little family. And Having little Hannah here just adds such an amazing measure of love, joy, and peace. I just feel so overwhelmingly blessed today. I am living the life I always dreamed of with the man of my dreams! And the kids are more than I could ever have hoped for.
It reminds me of an E.E. Cummings poem that was one of my favorites from a collection that we sang in high school.... " I thank thee God for this most amazing day"! I
Thank you all for the joy that you add to our lives!

Merry Christmas!

This may be as close to a Christmas card as we get this year! Please know we love you and are grateful for you all! Have a wonderful Christmas and a happy new year!

Our Christmas blessings!

We love our Sister!

Emma and Russell sure love holding the new baby!

Training hard

Russell is trying so hard to potty train and he looks so cute doing it!

The first snow!

SNOW!!! We got a lot of snow (not too much in these pics but about a foot with the whole storm) and the kids had a blast playing in it!

The lights.... SOOO glad to be done with these!

These pics are from before Hannah got off the lights but were too cute to not share:)

Back on the lights again (12/7/07)

Sleeping sweetly on the blanket

BIIIIIG Yawn!

First Bath

Emma and Russell loved helping give Hannah her first bath (and all subsequent ones!)
These pics are from 12/5/07

One week birthday suprise!

So we had been told that there was little chance Hannah would get off of the light therapy before Thursday but today after her blood test we got a call that her levels were so low she could discontinue the lights!!!!!! We are so thrilled to be able to put clothes on her (there IS half a foot of snow outside...) to be able to cuddle with her and have her out in the living room with the rest of us. I hated having to feed her then lock her up in the room so she would stay warm enough during the light treatment. I know we are truly blessed, She never had to be in NICU and had no serious problems so we feel so much gratitude to a loving Father in Heaven for hearing our prayers! She is doing great!
An update on the rest of us... Emma and Russell have pretty much gotten past the needing extra attention phase and are settling in to loving there new sister sooo much. When we got the call this afternoon to stop the lights they ran all over the house shouting "no more lights! no more lights!" It was great! They are both so happy just to get to see her eyes opened and have her hold there hands. Life is beautiful and I keep feeling like my heart is going to burst with love for these sweet little ones and the joy they find in each other.

First Pictures!!!!

Well, here we all are right after baby Hannah got here! Happy Birthday Hannah and Grandma!

She is such a content and sweet little girl. 7 lbs 2.8 oz 20 inches long! PERFECT!


She was born at 12:19 p.m. The same time of day (within a few minutes) as both big brother and big sister!




Soooo sleepy!

Mom, are we ready to go home yet???

Let's go Dad, I have a family to meet!

Wow, Big Sister Emma sure likes her new baby!

Big Brother Russell was sleeping when Hannah came to meet him but he quickly woke up and was very excited!

What do you all think of each other?

"Grandpa, that is my new baby sister!"

Such happy girls:)

Our little family!

Hannah on her tanning bed! It has been a little hard because we can't hold her except when she is being fed. She has to be on the Bili bed and blanket so that she doesn't get too jaundice (she was Coombs positive).

We will be sooo glad when she is able to stop being on this! We want to cuddle her and play with her!

Well, that is it for now I guess. I hope that you like all the pictures! We have had a crazy few days with all the blood tests and Dr visits and Emma and Russell getting sick etc... But we could not be happier or more grateful for this precious new life in our home! She has already brought us a million smiles and warmed our home with more love than we imagined! She is so special and we can't wait to show her off to everyone!!!

The Arrival of Hannah Noelle Thom!!!!!!!

SHE IS HERE!!!!
Hannah Noelle Thom was born at 12:19 pm (noon for those who like me find that confusing) on Dec 3rd! She was 7 lbs 2.8 oz (hereafter we will round it up to 3 oz because that is what they did at the hospital). She is a trooper! She is doing so awesome and Mom could not possibly be doing better!
Hannah has to be on the special jaundice blanket (a preventative measure because she is Coombs positive) We had to get home really quick from the hospital to meet the guy delivering the blanket so we couldn't post any pictures today! Sorry! ( We have dial -up so I upload pics at my Moms...) Anyhow - we will upload those hopefully tommorow on the way home from taking Hannah to do more bloodwork.
Meanwhile, she is truly a gift straight from heaven and we feel soooo blessed to have her in our home! Emma and Russell both think she is "so cute" and seem thrilled to have her here! YEAH!

So naughty!

I have been so bad at updating lately! We are just playing the waiting game around here.... The signs are all there but the baby is still apparently not quite ready to come. We are trying to be patient but its sometimes hard when it involves a lot of pain:) Ahhhh well. Life is great! The kids are enjoying Mom alot these days. I have been trieng really hard to do some extra fun things because soon we won't be leaving the house much:) But for now we are getting in all the playgroups, mall trips, library mornings, and "hot cocoa picnics" that we can:)
Russell is already pretty apprehensive about this new one but I am hoping that all the extra attention now and the fact that Dad will be home for a week will ease the transition a bit! Emma is still as excited as ever - she cracks me up. She will go in to the babies room and look at the tiny diapers and clothes and say "Oh, this is so cute it makes me almost cry". I have NO idea where she gets that!
We have the house all decorated for Christmas and are so excited to get to have a fun holiday at home! Keep checking back often - I am guessing that our next post will be the big announcement!
Meanwhile - MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!

Starting out right

This is an email my Dad sent to me with pictures that he took of the kids over Thanksgiving (which was wonderful by the way!). You can tell he is very pleased at their choice of reading material! In case you can't see it very well it is a hunting magazine! Gotta love it:) Thanks Dad!

The 3rd

Our 3rd little baby is going to be here on December 3rd if not before! The Dr said he wanted to induce me on that day if I have not already had her. (actually he wanted to do the 30th of Nov. but I really wanted to let her wait till at least Dec.!) So... we will see! It is hard to believe, but that is coming up really soon! We can hardly wait to bring our little Christmas miracle home!

The rooms!

We have finally finished the kids rooms and gotten the nursery set up! I know it seems silly to go to so much fuss over the 3rd baby's nursery but this is the first nursery I have been able to do/have so I am sooooo thrilled! It turned out even cuter than I thought it would. Emma and Russells room was also even better than I imagined! I am sure grateful for an amazing husband who can do ANYTHING! Thanks again hun!

THE NURSERY!!!!!!

Can you tell I am a little excited?

Happy Birthday Dad! We love you!!!!!

We had a great party with Daddy on Monday night Nov. 12! We are so grateful for such a wonderful man in our lives!

This is your last year in the 20's - make it count!

My "baby bro"

Ok, if you know me then you know how much I love my little brother. I can't help but believe he is one of the greatest people on the earth. He is one of the most loving and kind people I have ever known and I have always been proud to be his sister.
Currently he is serving in the NY NY South mission (pretty much Long Island and Bermuda). He has loved it and has tried to do his best in all of the ways he has been asked to serve.
This past week he was called to be the Assistant to the President (AP) and although we were not at all suprised by this we are so thrilled at the new ways he is going to be able to touch peoples lives. I especially think it is awesome because of the way he will be able to help the new missionaries to transition to mission life.
We love you soooo much Elder Goodman and pray for you always!

The latest

Ok - here is the latest since I went to the Dr this morning! I am starting to dialate and the baby is dropped and ready to come! After he checked me the Dr asked, "Is it ok if you don't have the baby in December?" I told him we didn't care when she comes as long as she is healthy! My projection (based on the last two kids) is that she won't come at all early but it is fun to think that it could be any time now!!!!

Temple work

On the Thursday after Halloween we got to participate in a special stake Temple Day. Our stake filled the temple doing Baptisms, Initiatory, Endowments, and Sealings all day for two days. The spirit was so amazing to have so many involved and every area of the temple working at full capacity all day for 2 days! Our temple district has a small temple (Snowflake) so everything has to be scheduled in advance, you can't just show up to do baptisms or whatever... So it was really incredible all of the coordination that took place and all of the people that participated. The Temple president has already begun to call on other Stakes to set up the same thing in their areas! What a wonderful thing that was to be a part of!

Suprise Shower

So, yesterday I was supposed to meet a friend to go to the mall and when I showed up to pick her up - there was a suprise baby shower for me! I am still in shock over it! It was so much fun and so nice to feel loved like that! I could never possibly tell those women all how much that meant to me!
We got some really adorable things for the baby - it will be great for her to have some things that aren't "hand me downs":) We also were soooo blessed that they did a group gift and we got a new swing!! The cradle kind , so I don't have to worry about dropping my kids (you try putting a kid in a traditional swing with one hand:)). We feel so loved and so blessed and so EXCITED! Thank you a million times over to those who were involved! I love you all!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!!!!

Russell was KILLER cute in his WAY too big fireman suit!

Emmas hair turned out even better than I thought it would! Who says you need two hands to do cute hair??



Cute kids!

Emma all dressed up as her favorite Princess Cinderella!

We can hardly wait for Halloween to come again!

Joy School Halloween!

At Emmas joy school they had a special Halloween Parade, Performance, and Party! It was so much fun to watch these cute kids show off there costumes and sing the new songs they learned!

Awesome Parade! You all look too cute!


The kids entertained us with the Pumpkin song and the Mean old witch with a hat! Good job guys!

That mean old witch might scare YOU!

Lots of stuff...

We have done some fun stuff but I hadn't had time to post for a while so.... here are a lot of pictures, newest to oldest!
Russell really missed his kitty while we were gone over conference weekend!

Here we are on our way home from Willcox (Jonathan's home town) at Lake Roosevelt. We had such a great time watching conference with Mom and Dad Thom and going to the parade and Jonathan's class reunion (which he had to be in charge of). It was good to make this final fun stop on the way back home!

Emma and Russy Bubs waiting for their sandwiches...

With Grandma Thom before we said G'bye! Don't be too sad kids - we will see her next weekend for Abigale's Baby blessing!

Our kids at their first parade!!! Russell loved the Tractors and Emma loved the little cars and candy!

We stopped at the Mesa Visitors center and the kids had a great time looking at all of the displays there, especially this statue of Christ! We also waited and watched a "princess bride" come out with her new hubby! The kids were hooked. They talk all the time now about getting married in the temple to their prince or princess.

Here are the cuties at an FHE we had in the woods with some friends! What more can you ask for than changing leaves, hot fire, good food, and friends! It was great although the kids were EXHAUSTED by the time we got home!

Well that's all for mow, sorry I have been so bad lately - that is what sleep deprivation will do to ya! I will try to be better:)