Where have we been besides hanging out over on Facebook??

As I mentioned in an earlier post last year, my grandmother (Meme) was diagnosed with terminal cancer and given six months or less to live. Well, I was fortunate enough to get to spend six weeks with her until her passing at the end of January. This has been a very tough transitional time in our lives and I know things will never be quite the same again in our family but I am honored to have had all the years that we shared together. There is no doubt in my mind that she lived her life to the fullest and kept her positive, loving attitude up until the end of her battle. We will miss her deeply but try to continue to honor her memory by remembering to show others the kindness and hospitality that she always displayed.

This is what happens when you have all brothers.

Yes, we had some snow in AL. It was beautiful from inside the house.

Julia with curled hair. Too cute!

Matthew and Carson dressed up for the banquet

Sweat Pea and Dakota had a litter of 11 pups!! Yikes.

Carson posing very patiently for me to take a decent pic of him.

Julia & Carson diving into their Valentine Candy

Carson & Julia celebrating Mardi Gras

Carson and Julia playing around at Chinese New Year in B'ham

Carson, Matthew & Lindsey eating lunch at CNY in B'ham

Stewart had his 8th birthday!!

Christmas Day 2009

Mom & Meme Christmas afternoon























Julia and Carson w/Gdaddy Christmas Afternoon


Our newest addition this Christmas, Little Thomas. What cute cheeks he has.

Carson deciding how he wants to move in for the hug with cousin Emily, Thomas's big sister.

Meme w/Carson and Julia Christmas afternoon

Carson who is no longer intimidated by his dinosaur that Poppy bought him for Christmas. I think they have now become bestest friends.

Chase finally got the Wii that he had been longing for.

Julia, Carson and Poppy Christmas morning. Cousin Megan got Julia the Hanna Tanna guitar and it appears that Julia struck gold.

Out of all the toys Santa brought, Carson decided to ignore them all except for the tub of dinos.

Yes, Matthew opened a shaving kit from Poppy. He is now sporting a dark shadow that is starting to resemble a mustache...NO WAY! I don't think I can adjust to him shaving at 14.
Matthew scored big with his new Xbox 360 and Guitar Hero for said Xbox.

Julia only wanted to open her stocking Christmas morning and pull each piece of candy and loot out one at a time.

Don't you just love the no make-up Christmas morning pictures? Gotta luv em.

Julia's Santa

Carson's Santa

Christmas Eve @ the Thomas Household

The notorious cookies and juice for Santa and a few crumbled cookies for the reindeer. I think Santa was a little hungry.


How many people can you fit into the Nikon lense?

Aunt Cindy is in 7th Heaven with her new t-shirt of Horatio from CSI Miami.

Julia took up residency with Aunt Cindy during the Nerf gun wars.

Grandpa Jim getting a little lovin for the Elmo purchase.

Yes, we did all show up in our PJ's tonight. We will be doing this from now on.

Aunt Kasey brought her fiancee Brian. We enjoyed meeting him and hope he didn't walk away not wanting kids for the rest of his life on earth.

Grandpa Jim being entertained by Elmo.

Matthew sporting Uncle Tony's Christmas PJ's.

Have you been good this year?????

Circle of Life

Meme's hands along with all of my boys. Julia did not want to participate in the hand photos.

Mom's hands with Meme and Gdaddy's.

Meme and Grandaddy's hands

Brian, Megan and Granddaddy's hands

Noonie found a photo in a magazine showing where someone had taken a picture of a generation of hands together. Way too cool. We thought that was a very fitting thing to do with Meme's current situation. She was called in the day before Thanksgiving and told her cancer had returned after four years and that she has very little time remaining with us. We are fortunate to have this remaining time to spend catching moments such as these.

Poppy's Birthday, Brian's Visit & Chase's Christmas Piano Debut

Group photo before Brian's departure back to Colorado

Poppy's Bday

Julia and Megan saying their goodbyes. Julia now says Megan is her best friend and misses her dearly.

Uncle Brian and the boys being goofy.

Aunt Jen and Chase

Julia sitting with Noonie

Julia and Gdaddy

How long do you thing this Gingerbread house lasted after it was completed? Not too long.

Chase playing the piano during the Children's musical at church. He did a great job playing four songs in front of a packed fellowship hall.