Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night

More pictures coming soon...

Two baby thumbs up

Here is baby John watching Levi. I think he gives it 5 stars.

John watching Levi from Daniel Tuutau on Vimeo.

2yr old random sampler

2yr old sampler from Jerry Thomas on Vimeo.

thank you rachel for the sports jams.

Thanksgiving photos

a few random ones and some thanksgiving ones.

By Request

Jen asked yesterday for a new video of Levi talking. So here you go Jen, I think you'll like these stories.

Public Service Annoucement- Move your mouse away from the video and you will be able to see the captions.

Two Jen Stories from Jerry Thomas on Vimeo.

Living the high life at 7,000 ft

We found a place to live! Even though Los Alamos has the highest rent in all of New Mexico, we will still be paying hundreds less every month and get to add a washer/dryer, dishwasher, and yard. woo! Here's the backyard and kitchen of our new abode. Its a 1/2 duplex, so, in the first picture you can see where a fence separates the two units.

Dessert Contest Memoirs- My Journey to the Elite Eight

Round Robin Entry: A smooth fudge topped with strawberry glaze and a strawberry slice.
Sweet Sixteen: A mini pie filled with 1 layer ghirardelli chocolate, 1 layer choc. pudding, and top layer of star-shaped whipped cream.
Elite Eight: Cake Truffles - cake mix+pudding mix+sour cream+cream cheese frosting, made into balls, dipped in chocolate.
This grand entry lost by a single vote to an amazing key lime pie. Not bad for a girl who has historically been given vote-of-no-confidence assignments like "vegetable tray" at Thanksgiving.

Here we go a-costuming

I love halloween. I really like to see what everyone comes up with for costumes. I also really like rummaging around the house and creating (semi) legitimate looking costume from stuff that is already there. For example, friend Hilary who made a "where the wild things are" costume from two white kitchen towels. Another good example: you may remember Rachel as Princess Leia made by spending zero whole dollars.
Here's the breakdown of what we came up with this year:

Vivian as : GOB, a character from the hilarious, but not well known show "Arrested Development"
1. Shirt - $2.95
2. Frozen Bananas - $2.50
3. Scooter - Borrowed from Jo
4. Sign, cards, flip flops - free
5. Trying to create the 'illusion' of male pattern baldness on myself: Priceless


Rachel as Viking Warrior
Ingredients
Start with 1 viking helmet
Then add:
1 brown Moby wrap baby sling
2 shoe laces from hiking boots
1 flyswatter covered in cardboard, tin foil, and a tie from some pants
1 fleece baby blanket
1 heaping cup of Rachel attitude



Levi as Your Friendly Neighborhood Garbage Man
I found every part of this in my house somewhere except for the $0.99 spent on a black posterboard to finish off the garbage can with a lid. The best part about this costume was how much Levi liked pushing the can around and pretending to be a garbage man.





Happy Halloween!

Happy Birthday Rachel

rachL from Jerry Thomas on Vimeo.

Behavioral Studies

At the age of two, a child will employ a remarkable variety of creative expressions to exert his growing independence.

no. from Jerry Thomas on Vimeo.

You might live in California if...

We've been teaching Levi letters lately (y'know, "C is for cookie" etc) and we take him into the bathroom where he notices the "H" and "C" on the bathroom sink faucet. So we tell him "Look Levi, H is for hot," and he repeats back "yes, H is for hot" then he pauses... "and C is for warm!"

You can't fool a two year old.

countrytime fall comes to a seaside town

You might be a 2-year old if...

A few weeks ago when we were in church Levi was being really, really noisy. We've been working with him to try and get him to use a "quiet voice", so I picked him up and whispered to him, "Levi, we're in church and we need to be quiet so people can hear the speakers... can you use your 'quiet voice'?"

He looked at me with his "serious" face, thought for a second, then almost inaudibly he whispered back, "No."

last minute getaways

since we now have 3 unemployed adults in the house, we decided to go on a vacation. and since cruises get cheaper the more you procrastinate making a decision, it presented itself as a nice option. here are some highlights.

Counting - Rated PG-2

This film not advisable for children under 2. Rated PG-2 for blatant disregard of a few very important numbers.

counting then more dancing from Jerry Thomas on Vimeo.

Los Alamos Stats

Jerry has accepted the offer from Los Alamos National Labs. So I thought I'd share some things you may not know about the town of Los Alamos.
-Location: Northern New Mexico
-Distance from Santa Barbara: 985 miles
-Distance from Dan and Amanda Allen (former next door neighbors): 92 miles
-Elevation: 7,300 ft
-Population: 12,000 (apparently 190,000 people live within a forty mile radius, ok?)
-Average high in summer: 80 (F) Yes, you read that right.
-Annual Snow Fall: 46 in (No, I don't currently own a "coat" or anything close to it)
-Closest ski resort: 10 miles away
-It was originally founded as an assembly facility for the first atomic weapons. The location was selected specifically for its "remoteness".
-Not to be confused with: The Alamo

A good moment in history

Yesterday Jerry successfully completed his PhD defense. The first picture is Jerry's advisor signing the paperwork certifying his completion after his talk.
Today we gathered in the back patio of Taffy's pizza to have a commencement ceremony. The official proceedings comprised of Krissie, Claire, and Rachel playing "Pomp and Circumstance" and Mike hooding Jerry and presenting him with his diploma. Congratulations Jerry. You did it.

Turkey Stampede

We went with Jen to the Ventura County fair. Levi petted a big pig, we ate food on a stick, Jerry wore a trucker hat, and we watched a turkey race. Oh America. See Jen's pics here -
http://jenurena.blogspot.com/2009/08/turkey-stampede.html

Breaking news

So here's an update for all those wondering about the job search.
Jerry had an interview at Los Alamos (New Mexico) National Labs. It went well, he liked them, and his would-be boss said they are going to give him an offer. Woot!
His next interview will be this Tuesday at a company called MedImmune in Gaithersburg, Maryland. If they also give him an offer, then there will be some decisions to make. So, as it stands now, it appears that we will in fact be moving, place to be determined, in the next little while.
Oh, and for those of you who hadn't heard, Jerry has scheduled his defense for August 27th.

funny mood, caught on tape

telling jokes from Jerry Thomas on Vimeo.

Some Summer Fun 2009

Happy Birthday Little Man

It was 2 years ago at 2am that Levi Orlando Thomas entered the world. On his birthday he got chocolate non-dairy ice cream and cool dude sunglasses. What a day.

Dance Party

levi dance party from Jerry Thomas on Vimeo.

A walk in the Alps

OK, so when Jerry was listening to talks about proteins all day, I went hiking by myself. Not having anyone to talk to, I decided to make a movie. Now you can all pretend like you were there with me. Be warned, these videos are not very exciting. I made them, so here they are.

One year older and wiser too

Happy Birthday to you Jerry. Congratulations on 30 great years of life.

While we were traveling

In case you were all wondering what Levi was up to while we were gone, here is what Rachel (Vivian's little sister, and babysitter extraordinaire) had to say about their week together.

# of YSA activities Levi attended: 8- Beach hike, BBQ, church, going away party, croquet match, enrichment night, movie night, ultimate frisbee

# of my guy friends that think Levi is the coolest little dude in the world: 8

# of my girl friends that want to marry him: 10

# of sea cucumbers Levi touched: 2

# of crabs he touched: 0

# of gallons of plankton water that Levi thought was juice: 100 (it took a lot of work to convince him he couldn’t drink any of it)

# of times we watched Winnie the Pooh: 9

# of disc tosses: 249

# of times I was happy to have Grandma Mona (Granma Mota) here: countless

# of times he asked about Mom and Dad: countless

# of emotional breakdowns: 1

Most heart wrenching moment: I was teaching Levi about using the word "find/found", so I was telling him "find a trash can" and he was saying things like "Bevi find a fire truck". Later on he was asking about his Mom and Dad, and I was telling him the story of them leaving on a bus. He got a thoughtful/concerned look on his face for a minute and then said "Find mom and dad." Aw.

Longest sentence: “Ra-ra and Bevi get gas in a car a drive home!”

Best find: tied between an orange remote control car and a bunch of helium-filled balloons (both found in the magic dumpster)

Most stressful moment: when my Relief Society teacher called 15 minutes before RS to tell me she wouldn’t be coming in. I gave an impromptu lesson and was once again very glad that Mom was there, as I couldn’t have done it if I had to watch Levi as well (Levi was very good, but was sometimes very distracting…occasionally during the lesson he would say “heyyy Ra-ra”, which would completely throw me off my train of thought)

Best new word: Funky. As in, “Levi funky!”

Most joyful moment: Watching Levi’s face when he finally saw his Dad and Mom getting off the bus

Levi’s newfound talent: hip-shaking

update #2

I don't have the time to upload pictures so I'll write about the event for which I have no pictures (of my own). On Tuesday night Jerry and I went to an concert by the zurich orchestra. It was in a very ornate historical building downtown. The music was beautiful. Both Jerry and I were remarking on how we always forget how good music sounds when it is live. It felt very fun to get to go to a show together. Thanks Rachel!!

Zurich Update

Jerry and I arrived in Zurich yesterday after a 10 hour non-stop flight from LAX. The city is a 10 minute train ride from the airport. We checked in to the hotel and called our friends Jeffrey and Karen who have lived in Lausanne since last fall. We walked down the riverfront and around by the lake. The weather has been very nice. People were out lounging in swimwear and soaking up the sun. We bought some bratwurst and fries from a street vendor and ate on a bench.
Side note: it has been interesting ordering food here. I try my best in German and the waiter or person at the counter will usually speak back in a mix of German and English (depending on how long it takes me to process and respond to the deutsch). Its kind of nice because I have been able to add words to my vocab that way. Most notably I've noticed a distinct lack of that "look" that you can often get from people with a bad attitude towards tourists when you're trying to speak their language, which is nice.
Anyway, after we ate, we met up with some other former santa barbarians who now live near Basel and had some dessert.
We got in bed extremely tired, but of course because of the time change - both woke up around 3:30. I was able to fall back asleep, but not Jerry. Any bets on whether or not he falls asleep during the opening session tonight?
Today we visited Lucerne which is very picturesque. Which is an adjective that fits everything we've seen so far. You know- buildings with shuttered windows with flower boxes lining a river. One thing we didn't expect to see was a group of maybe 200 plus people in full wetsuits, scuba masks and various pool toys jumping into the river and floating away. I have no idea what this was about. We wandered around the walled part of the city and listened to the clock chime at noon from within the bell tower.

Now I'm back at the hotel and Jerry and Jeffrey went to the opening session. After walking all day, I am pretty tired right now, probably even more than yesterday. I'm blogging to try to stay awake until a reasonable bedtime. So- sorry about any typos or incomplete thoughts.

May and June Photos

Rachel's cool costume, random activities, and a few wedding photos.

Jet Lag

Its 8:01 am and I've already been up for hours. I know for many of my friends, especially those who also have kids, this doesn't seem newsworthy. But for me it is.

With regards to our upcoming trip, Jerry has decided to try to move his sleeping schedule as far as he can to minimize the effects of jet lag. He has already moved it almost 3 hours. I have my doubts as to whether this will have a measurable effect, but I know I get excessively tired from crossing time zones, so I am willing to give it a try.

My strategy is usually - sleep as much as possible on the plane then try to resist the magnetic pull of my bed until a reasonable bedtime.

Anyone out there have any better ideas? Do you think trying to change your sleeping schedule before departure will work?

Experimentation

Last week at Monica's wedding, I forgot shoes for Levi. He represented Santa Barbara well and went with a suit and flip flops (Yes, I have actually seen this at church in adult form). We didn't take too many pictures so I dressed him up again. I was interested in the style of the engagement photos and tried to recreate the look(faded colors, overexposed, shooting into the sun). I didn't get it exactly right, but I would say not bad for a first go. The first one is my favorite. Love the look on his face.

Happy Wedding Day Rhett and Monica

the levi variety show

Levi May 09 from Jerry Thomas on Vimeo.

The Enthusiast

Some of my friends at playgroup don't think Levi gets excited about much. Its a mystery why they think this. So I found some pictures of him enjoying some of his favorite activities.

early childhood developments

I have collected a few evidences that Levi is getting older. In the past couple of weeks Levi has:
-grown tall enough to hit his head on the cutting board
-walked the zoo on his own two legs.
-threw a real for real temper tantrum about nothing
-learned to say "earth" and point to it on a picture of the solar system (thanks krissie and kevin for the placemats)
-had an opinion about what shoes to wear
-tried to skip his nap
-learned to say his own name, although it will be awhile before it sounds like Levi instead of Beebi.

Easter Weekend

The Jerry had an Ultimate Frisbee tournament in Long Beach and we all went along for the ride. We stopped at the LA temple on Friday, then to LB the next morning. Sunday, the day for which I have no photographic evidence, we went to church, then to Lauren and TJ's for pozole (a tasty tasty soup). TJ and Lauren gave Levi an awesome easter basket from Oaxaca. And instead of plastic eggs, they got plastic sports balls and filled them with candy. A basketball with candy inside??? Nothing could be better.

A side story from yesterday:
So, many of you know that Levi is pretty quick on the uptake with most activities in the sports category. For example, we gave him a soccer ball, he kicked it. We set up a basketball hoop, he threw a ball into it. And on and on. Well last night we were playing Wii Tennis and he was very entertained watching the tv. After Rachel and I finished a game I looked down to see that Levi was holding the tv remote. He was looking up and the tv and would swing the remote like a tennis racket and say "boom". Hmm, I wonder if Wii Tennis will be a collegiate sport?

Catching up

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. Here is my catching up post.

Happy 5 Years

Our Marriage in Numbers
Days of Marriage: 1,825
Children: 1
Air miles traveled together: 40,506
Lessons prepared for church classes: 303
Hours of ultimate frisbee: 755
Total miles biked: 5,871
Pictures taken: 27,000 (est)
Being married to someone who "gets" you: Priceless

Shooting hoops

I bought this basketball hoop for Levi and he knew just what to do.

Getting ready for the madness from Jerry Thomas on Vimeo.

Beth, Darcy, Sydney, Eric, and Jackson visit Santa Barbara

two clips i left out

I forgot I had these when I made the last video. I think they kind of go together anyway.

Levi and Dad from Jerry Thomas on Vimeo.

Random video sampler 19 months

Levi 19month sampler from Jerry Thomas on Vimeo.

Levi Meets Levi again

On Friday we all went up to Solvang for stage 6 of the Tour of California. The tour decided to snub Santa Barbara this year, so we drove 30 minutes to go see the time trial. We had two goals for the day: see some famous cyclists and eat at Mortensen's Danish Bakery. You see- Jerry's grandpa is named Jerry Mortensen. No relation to this particular bakery, but we're sure the family lines intersect. Anyway, a bike race and the prospect of an authentic danish pastry was enough to get four of us on the road.

The other goal was to see Levi Leipheimer defend his title in the race. Long time followers of this blog may remember when Levi Thomas and Levi Leipheimer met last year:
http://thejervian.blogspot.com/2008/02/levi-meets-levi.html

Well, we didn't wait outside his trailer for the photo op this year, but we did watch him ride a great time trial. If you watch the video closely enough, you can see him wave to Levi on his way by. I thought that was nice.

tour of california from Jerry Thomas on Vimeo.

Banff Mountain Film- 2008 Trailer

Jerry and I will be seeing the world tour of the Banff Mountain Film festival Monday March 2. If any of you want to join us, let me know.

If anybody wants to watch it on Tuesday, we'll watch your kid(s). As long as you promise to give us your raffle prize.

Oscar Nominee

Super Radchel from Jerry Thomas on Vimeo.

Valentine's Day photo shoot

Happy Valentine's day to everyone!

January Photos

Uncontainable Excitement

Photoshop experiments

I have been reading Pioneer Woman Cooking blog for a while but I only just recently discovered the photography section of her blog. http://thepioneerwoman.com/photography/
I especially like her photoshop tips. She has made available "actions" which is just her photoshop edits in downloadable bundles. So you can take what she has done to a photo and pick it apart and learn how to get the same effects on your own photos. It is very fun, and an easy way to learn a bit more about photoshop. Anyway, here are some recent photos that I have edited, followed by their original file. I think the edited photos are much more inviting to the eye.

Number 4 Privet Drive

Rachel has come to live with us and by all accounts it is working out pretty well so far. She babysat for us on Wednesday when I went to work, and Levi didn't seem to mind at all. What a miracle. Here's a sneak peak at the new abode of our favorite stowaway.

What a difference a year makes

Jack and Levi and Pink Stroller- December 2007


Jack and Levi and Pink Stroller- December 2008

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night

Soccer Practice

Here is a little video compilation that Vivian made a month ago.


Kickin Levi from Jerry Thomas on Vimeo.