Our Very Own NBA Team

So Last night I went to our First ever Pre-season NBA Home game. It was quite the thrill to see Professional Basketball players up close. In fact I was just about on the floor with the seats that I got. The only reason why I got this ticket was that our bosses bought 9 tickets. 4-2 ticktes and a single ticket. This is from the bank. I happen to have won the single ticket but i tried to get another one so that Laura could go with me. Our team's name is Oklahoma City Thunder. It is a little odd but it is catching on. We only lost by 2 points. The final score was 90-88. We played the L.A Clippers. The game was very good it wasn't until after half time that the crowd started to get into the game. Yes even me... Although most people were drinking I was not. It was, needless to say, a very good game. I hope that i will be able to win more tickets to be able to go to more home games.

Just to let you know I had to leave my MacroEconomics class in order to go. I got my test that I took last week and I scored an 88% on it. It is better than the 56% that I scored on my first test. My accounting class I have an A the other two classes I am unsure about. Other than that things are going good.

We have moved into an apartment that is closer to the college that I am going to. Her parents have moved upstairs so that they can finish the downstairs to get the house ready to sell. So the little house that we were living in they are going to be moving into with Halen.

Laura and ella are doing good. Ella is walking all over the place. We have to keep a close eye on her or she goes into the kitchen and get everything out of the cupboards. Laura is doing good in her new calling. Her calling is in the YW with the Behives, she is gone for Mutual so i get the house for a little bit. So far she is liking her calling.


Tell you more later.

Thomas.

School

Well school has started once again. I am going to school Mon, Tues, Wed, and Thrus. I have had my first test already under my belt. It was on my accounting class which is on Wed. I scored a 97% on it. Regardless I am very excited. In two weeks we have another test and I want to score good on that so a bunch of us is going to get together next week and study.

My Monday class is Intro to Banking. Tuesday is MacroEconomics. Wednesday is Accounting 1. Thursday is Personal Finance. Yes I am still working at Chilis and we now have discount cards. To where we can go to any Chilis and and resturant owned by Brinker like On the Border and get a discount. We also get a 16% discount on our phones too.

We started looking at apartments to move into. As her parents are going to be selling the house here. The big house. They are trying to get it fixed up and then probably going to sell it around spring time. So we are looking at houses close to Oklahoma City Community College, or the downtown area. We went out looking yesterday at a couple of them and found ones that were really nice. It is right by the college and they are pretty nice on the outside and on the Inside. They lady said that they are going to be having a downstairs 2 bedroom 2 bath with a fireplace opening up the first of October. We will be taking pictures of the place when we get in there. Needless to say this is a good step in the right direction. We have been with her parents for a while now and we need to get out on our own.

Love you guys lots. Hope to see you at Christmas.

Busy, Busy, Busy

Hey Family,

Sorry that it has been a while since we have posted anything on our Blog. Things were kinda a whirlwind since summer started. I started going to chilis Tues-Friday and Mondays were busy with other things. Saturday's we were busy with the house, and then sunday was church. Now that school has started things are even tighter. School Mon-Thurs, Chilis Firday night and Saturday morning, Date night Saturday night, and then there is church.

Ella's birthday was fun we had 2 cakes for her. One Laura made and the other we got at Wal mart. Had a fun family gathering on her birthday and then on Saturday had a party for her with people from the ward. She got a lot of presents. Everyone there had a blast. A day before her birthday we did pictures of Ella and we got our family pictures also this time. Don't worry you will all be able to see them. We are trying to get them loaded onto our computer and then onto our Blog.

If you haven't heard I beleive that I have changed my major. I am thinking of going into Finance. I'm thinking of becoming a Financial Advisor, but if i do good in Accounting this semester I will try and stick with it. my classes this year are Acct1, macroeconomics, intro to banking, and personal Finance.

have to go. Need to study for a test in Macro Economics. I get my first test from Accouting 1 back tomorrow. More to come.

I am One Pictures

Ella's Birthday Party

#4 Painting

One day I had gotten home from work early and was playing with Ella when Laura had a good idea for Halen to do as we watch him in the mornings. We decided to paint pictures. Don't worry they were not toxic and were ok to play with. we cut a piece of paper for ella to do some paintings and well....you have to see the pictures. These pictures are worth a thousand words. Hope you enjoy them. Ella had a fun time doing it. As you can tell she got paint everywhere.

#3 Whitewater Bay

I know that it is hard to see, but a while back Laura went with Halen, her brother, mom and Ella to White water Bay. This was Ella's first water day and from what I heard she had a blast. She even fell asleep in her tube a little before they were about to leave. To say the least I wasn't able to go but I might be going soon. I hope that All your pool parties are going to be fun and hope everything is a blast.

#2 Remodeling The Bathroom

Well as you can tell I had a little fun with the remolding. They wanted me to scrape off all of the popcorn stuff on the ceiling. Lets just say that If i didn't have the goggles on my eyes I probably wouldn't have been able to see. After going through all that Laura decides to crack a joke. Saying " Hey maybe for Halloween you can be a ghost. I mean i know how to make you all white now."

Late in coming , but good nonetheless

So Looking at everyone's blog I have noticed that we are the last ones to update it. Well you will be surprised at how busy we have been. I've hardly had the time to breathe it seems like, for i am working hard at both jobs. What has happened since we have done the last blog... Well for starters Memorial day I had off from both jobs and we went to the zoo. Second I have been helping remodel the upstairs bathroom. Third Ella and Laura went to White Water. Forth We found a little gardener snake. Fifth Ella did a little painting, and last but not least we went Camping.

So as you can tell a lot has gone on since May 7, the last post. This will catch you guys up to speed on what has been happening here in our little neck of the woods. Also during this whole time I have been working more at Chili's and am going to be putting in an application in to be a Personal Banker at the downtown location. The reason behind it is that Our Personal Banker at our location is going to be going to school full time and only working Part time as a teller. One of our other tellers that we have is going to be quiting on August 15. So it works out in the end. All that we need is a full time PB and I am going to talk to my manager about it.

So the days that I have been working at chili's is Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and also Saturday mornings at 8 in the morning. So besides getting more shifts at chili's more money for us, If they would seat me, and if they would quit giving me Q.A (Quality Analysis, making sure correct food goes out to the correct table) and Host Shifts. Other than that things are good. Ohh the ones on Saturday are for New Hire Orientation.

First trip to the zoo!!!

This weekend that we went to the zoo was the first actual 3 day weekend that I have had in a long time. So we decided to go to the Zoo. We were planning on being there only a couple of hours but we were there for like 4 hours. As you can tell Ella had a good time at the zoo. It was hot when we went so a lot of the animals like this Gorilla were in the shade just taking a rest. Things were going good. Funny little story about the zoo. We went into this area for all of the marine life. We walked down into this area and were walking around when out of the blue this voice rings out and says "The picture that you have does not do her justice." I looked around and notice a couple . The wife said the same thing again, then she added "you don't remember us do you?" I looked at her and then the baby, then at her again , and then I looked at her husband. That is when it hit me. I showed them a picture of Ella while I served them at Chili's a few weeks past. Talk about weird.


These are just some of the pictures that we have for you. More to come.

Work

So as Laura has said I got a pay raise. We are all very excited about it. While I was in the drive thru last month my branch manager came in to do our quarterly review. He ranked me an even 2 all they way across. It is good for me. I am working hard at it and am getting a lot of referalls. In the drive thru alone I got 2 credit cards, and also 5 Home Equity Line of Credit. All of these were just warm referalls and hoping that they go through. It is 10 points per credit card and 10 points for each HELOC. I also believe that i get a dollar per point. That is the best in the drive thru, and I have two more coming when I get back to the drive thru. My pay raise to let you know is $0.18.

PAY RAISE!!

Thomas is getting a pay raise. We are not sure how much yet but every little bit helps. It is pretty awesome because he has only been working there for 4 months!! YEAH!

First Bandaid

Hello Family,
As you can or can not tell by the picture Ella now has 4 bottom teeth. Yup that is right 4 bottom teeth and she wasn't cranky at all. Well this morning after she woke up from her nap we noticed that there was a cut on her thumb. So we put a bandaid on it and that is what the second picture is of. The third one is just a funny picture that we took. Well hope you guys like them.

Teeth

Ella is still cutting teeth. It takes like a month for them to come in. Thankfully it doesn't really bother her because there are 4 coming in at the same time. We are busy packing our stuff back up to move into my parents house. The real reason we are making this move is because no one wants to deal with my sister. She is not taking responsibility for her son and we can see how it is affecting Halen. She will be leaving Halen with us for a month until she "settles in" to the house...so we will wait and see. She was engaged but broke it off a few weeks ago and is now in a new relationship which means a lot of her being gone until the wee hours of the morning. We will have the whole upstairs of the house so we are thinking this move maybe a good one for at least now. Also Ella says MOMMA and occasionally DADDA and loves eat whatever she can get heer mouth around including the metal legs of the chairs. She is really getting good at moving around. The other day she scooted her exersaucer across the floor.

Easter

Weigh In

Ella had her 6 month checkup with her new Primary Doctor. She weighs 14lbs 10oz and is 25 1/2 inches long. She is now in the 25%. Yeah!! On the down side she is starting to get an ear infection in both ears so she is taking an antibiotic. This doctor was the best and even her staff were awesome. She sat down at my level and looked directly at me to answer all my questions. She didn't mess with paperwork or examine Ella while answering which always annoys me because i feel like all they are trying to do is rush me out the door. She also answered my stupid questions without making me feel stupid. It was great. For the first time since Ella has been born I have left the doctors feeling like a good mom!

Allergy Testing

On Wednesday Halen had to have allergy testing. He has been getting the croup at least once a month since November and his doctor was pretty sure it was due to allergies. We weren't too worried because my Sister had allergy testing when she was a kid and they just did a scratch test on her back. Well we were wrong they did the scratch test on his back but then some had to be injected under the skin. Not one but 24 shots . Of course he screamed and was completely exhausted by the end. The doctor gave him coupons to a place called Incredible Pizza which is an All You Can Eat pizza, salad, and dessert place and then they have arcade games and go karts. We went there for dinner that night and had a blast! Thomas took Halen on the Go Karts and they got first place. Halen got a ribbon which he is very proud of. Thomas really made his day!

New Baby

Before any of you freak out NO Thomas and I are not having a new baby. Ella is like a whole new baby. For the first time since she has been on formula she does not have a runny nose. The reason she has had the chronic problem is that she is allergic to milk protein. So she was put on a soy formula. Well she is sensitive to that also. So she is now on a Hypoallergenic Formula. Thank goodness for WIC because it is $30 for a 16oz can. She is happier, even more alert which i didn't think possible, and more talkative. This is all great for her but not so much for me cause I am always exhausted . I am trying to pump more so that she can get more milk but I seem to have issues with the pump. So we will just have to see.

Videos Of Ella

Ella loves to hold everything and examine it. This is her examining her spoon.


Daddy teasing Ella. She gets so excited when it is time to eat.

Her checks have really filled out since the food.


I like Fish and smiling at mommy

Everything

Well here is everything that is going on in our neck of the woods/with our little family

1: Ella is now 6 months old and growing out of everything. She is getting too big for all of her cute clothes that she has so we went and bought her new clothes.
2: Ella's room is almost done. Just one more coat of paint.
3: Laura is always happy when Thomas gets home.
4: Thomas only has to go to school on Mondays and not the rest of the week.
5: Thomas will eventually be going bald for all the hair that Ella is lovingly pulling out.
6: Laura is going crazy because of the messy house.
7: Thomas is going to be selling his Honda as soon as the door gets fixed.
8 Pictures will come when Ella's room is done.
9: Ella is crawling all over Daddy.
10: Ella now has 2 teeth and eats 2 jars of baby food a day.(recommended by the doctor)
11: Thomas wrote an essay for school that was really good. He got a good grade on it.

Rant

I am getting so frustrated with Doctors! We got new insurance so we had to find a new Doctor. Ella went to see one we were thinking of being her primary because she has been having coughing fits. That was all it was supposed to be instead they turned it in to a Wellness visit. They even asked if i wanted them to do a wellness visit and I said no. Anyways, they started up the whole thing of "she doesn't weigh enough"weighs 12lbs9oz length 25ins.... "we should be worried about her brain function"...."you don't feed her enough"....etc. they asked how much she eats and how often well she takes in about 4-5oz of formula every two hours when awake and eats 2 jars baby food a day. They said that I need to feed her 7-8ozs every three hours and to wake her up at night for feedings also. The problem is that when I try to give her more than 5oz she will not take it or she trows up. We have done the adding cereal to the formula...we have done high calorie formula and it doesn't make a difference. AHHH!!! In the last 7 months there has been 11 babies born in our ward. Ella is the healthiest. She is alert, she talks (babbles and will says mama), she has two teeth, she reaches for toys and looks for them when they fall, she observes everything around her, and loves studying faces. If this is what an unhealthy malnourished baby is then we have a lot of 20lb 6month olds who are "malnourished" I mean i am wrong? Am I malnourishing my child? Should I be worried? They just make me feel like a horrible mother when they start down my throat like this.

Ella and her new toy

Hello Family,
The other day Laura was trying to do
Laundry while Halen was over. She needed
to put Ella down for a second but had to be
somewhere Halen couldn't get to her. So
she put here down in the laundry basket
She instantly loved it. She just looked
around and smiled. When I got home and
heard about it I had to see for myself. So I
tried and sure enough she calmed right
down and just smiled way.

It has been almost 6 months WOW.

Our colors are Red and Yellow

Thomas, your true color is Red!

Your color is red, the color of racy sportscars, blushing cheeks, and luscious roses. Red symbolizes passion, romance, and love. So, since you're ruled by red, you probably trust your feelings more than your brain and tend to act spontaneously. If you see something you want, you go for it without thinking twice — impulsive is your middle name. You don't wait around for people to make decisions, either; you dive right in. Quite the romantic, you pay close attention to your emotions. In fact, if your heart isn't in what you're doing, you won't be satisfied. Of course, even when you do pour all your energy into the projects you tackle, your impetuous nature means your passions can shift as frequently as the wind. That's why some reds have trouble with commitment. Our advice? Next time you're feeling fickle, think before you act, if possible. You might be surprised at the results. Overall, though, it's great to be red. No one lives life more completely than you do.

Laura, your true color is Yellow!

You're yellow, the color of joy and energy — two things you definitely bring to everyone around you. It's hard for anyone to be sad or lonely in your presence; your sunny disposition and cheery outlook just won't allow it. The warmth of your personality shines through in the kindness you show friends and family (and strangers, too). Always ready with a lighthearted joke or heartfelt compliment, you know how to make people feel good about themselves, so they can't get enough of you. Yellow is a warm and inviting color for a warm and inviting person — you!

Ella's First Tooth

Hello Family,

Last Night was an eventful night. Ella was teething. She started fussing and since it was a new thing For Laura and I, we called people who had been through it before. We tried everything of course. Teething tablets, teething toys, her green little fish and her pacifier. Nothing worked at all. So I called Celeste, and took her advice. We gave her a double dose of tylenol and put baby orajel on her gums. Later on we fed her and then I put her down to sleep. She slept until 5:30 this morning when I was supposed to wake up. i finally got out of bed about quater til 6 and got her out of her cradel and went to Laura. Got dressed and then went to work.

School also started this week. I have 3 online courses and one that I am taking at school. More on that later. Right now have to go. Have to get Ella to bed.

P.S. We are finally getting Ella's Room done.