The BrehiThomas Family Blog: August 2017

August 2017

Lincoln is 1 year

We kept his birthday pretty low key. I made a layered cake (for the first time ever) and it wasn't too shabby. It was my mom's chocolate cake with a fluffy chocolate mousse in the middle. The Westensee family came over to sing, eat cake, and open some presents. We did a "smash cake"/family picture session with Stephanie a week or so later. Lincoln was impartial to the whole cake thing, but once we have both him and Maverick a fork, they were quick to dig in.

Maverick Mind

While pulling on mittens we had for him in Rexburg (like we need those here), he proudly announced: "I'm Sticky Fingers!" Throughout the day he would randomly exclaim, "Sticky powers, ON!" and pretend to climb up walls. When Lehi got home, Maverick went to greet him in the garage and pawed his hands over the hood of the car while making the accompanying "sticky finger" sound effects.

Maverick playing with his slime. "2 cups sugar....dump" pours slime into bowl, puts slime back in container, dumps in bowl again, "2 cups milk" (proceeds to make the same motions).
Me: "What are you making,bud?"
Maverick: "I'm making a baby. A baby Lincoln."

Maverick also packed his short pockets with animal crackers. He would randomly reach in, pull one out, and feed it to Lincoln. Like a pet dog.

Too Much Office?

Clearly, the stress and anticipation of teaching again on campus got the best of me. I relayed my dream to Lehi as such, "So I was in Exercise Physiology lab, and I was shadowing the lab to teach in the following hour, but I was a student. Someone in the lab said, "I need someone who is competent to be my partner." I immediately raised my hand to turn and see that the voice belonged to none other than Dwight Schrute. So we completed the lab about force production with different angles together. The next morphed part of my dream, Lehi told me in a letter he was leaving for training for 9 months and was flying out Friday (it was Thursday in my dream). I started crying in the hall and Jim Halpert gave me a hug and told me it was going to be ok."

5 Year Anniversary Surprises

I decided to get a jump start on my anniversary present to Lehi and went through all of our dating pictures, facebook messenger conversations (yes, you can go back through 6 years worth of chat information, and yes, it did take forever), engagement pictures, and any other documentation of our dating stages and created a book. Lehi had an idea of what I was doing but was not exactly sure what it was--I had to give it away to an extent because I gave him assignments like," Tell about the way to engaged from your viewpoint" and "what were some of the qualities that made you interested in me." I look forward to having more books with the Thomas' story (note I did not say I look forward to making them ;) ). I absolutely love it and I think I did a good job actually surprising Lehi, too. We kinda have a track record of telling each other what we got and not being able to contain surprises--whether it be a birthday gift, Father's/Mother's Day present, or package from Santa Clause, we get too excited and always spill the beans before the actual event takes place. In addition to the book, I bought a journal for us to write in every year on our anniversary. I re-wrote some letters we had sent to each other from dating to engagement, and now we get to add what happened 5 years later and every year after.

Most people know Lehi also LOVES those nasty wax-like mouse poop of various colors on top of his ice cream. So over the course of a weekly shopping trip for about 6 weeks, I purchased a large container of sprinkles to make one ridiculously huge container that will most likely last a few months. Again, I rocked and kept this gift a complete surprise, too. Oh the smirk on his face was priceless.

Since our anniversary was during the week, I sent Lehi to work with boxes with small presents that he was allowed to open every few hours. There were a total of 5 boxes, each containing a present that represented years 1-5 of marriage and a short description. I did may best to make them gifts that would actually be used. The box also contained a mometo form that year. I didn't type up all the explanations here, but just a short summary

Year 1: Compression Shorts. Things were a little tight--not just financially, but also in our little studio apartment. Item from that year: a couple "love notes."

Year 2: Pop Rocks & a Framed Picture of Maverick. We started rocking a baby that year and he became our world. You became a father and I became a mother." Item from that year: Maverick's hospital bracelet.

Year 3: Bunch a Crunch. Every few months felt like crunch time. Lots of moves to different states. Item from that year: Death Cab for Cutie Concert Tickets & Philadelphia Eagles tickets

Year 4: Salt & Pepper Shakers & Framed Picture of Lincoln. We decided to shake things up and add baby #2 to the mix. Item from that year: Lincoln's ultrasound pictures

Year 5: Spot It (card game) & Confetti. This year has been a total party. Item from the past: Billy Joel concert tickets.

Tasha took the boys so I was able to meet Lehi for lunch. He surprised me with some gorgeous Texas Wildflowers. We went to this awesome (fancy) Steak house and got their pork chop special and breaded asparagus. Best pork chop I have ever had in my life. Not to mention it was like 5 inches thick, so it doubled over as dinner, too. Lehi also got me a fruit dryer--that I have wanted for a long time, but finally have the space to store it! It has already gotten some miles out of it making lots of dried fruit. Yum!

He was a happy date ;)

We finished the evening off with Cold Stone Ice Cream with the boys. I think it's safe to say we have successfully instilled the love of ice cream in Mr. Lincoln.