…and along with a brand new year comes resolutions. Lose weight, quit smoking, get out of debt; You know, the usual suspects. Well one of mine this year is to start a website dedicated to my family and actually keep it updated. If you know me then you know it’s not easy for me to stick with things, so if you notice me slacking, give me a little nudge and I’ll pick it back up.
2005, wow, what a year for the Thomas Family. On July 22, at 9:03 am, our lives changed forever when Kimberly (that’s my wife) gave birth to our first child, a feminine child that we called McKinley Anne. McKinley was Kimberly’s grandfather’s middle name (William Lassiter) and Anne is the middle name of my sister, Laura Kelley. McKinley weighed in at 6 pounds 14 ounces and meausured 20.5 inches long. Beautiful little girl. Wow. I mean really wow. It’s just incredible. She’s just this tiny little person with tiny little hands and tiny little feet and she’s growing so quickly! It seems like each week I notice her doing something new. Each and every time I look at her I just feel like my life is going to explode! We love her so much it hurts.
On Halloween we got some bad news. Our famous cat, Hogan, passed away very unexpectedly. He actually woke us up on Saturday, October 29, meowing weirdly, and instantly we knew something was wrong. Hogan had had a urinary infection about 2 years ago and during that time he made the same type of sounds so we didn’t think this was that serious, but I took him to the vet that morning to have him checked out. Man, I was floored when the vet came back in and said it was a bad situation and that Hogan probably wasn’t going to make it. Evidently Hogan was born with an unusually small liver, and as he got bigger his liver just couldn’t handle it. No one had ever told us about this condition before, so it really came out of left field. They ran some tests on him and while they were waiting on the results he passed away early Monday morning. We loved Hogan, and he was going to be a great big brother to McKinley. We called him our famous cat because if you go into any Dollar General store in America, Hogan is on their bag of Kitty Mix. Beautiful cat. We miss you Hogan.
Then in November we moved. That’s right, we moved… again. When we moved to Franklin from Hendersonville in 2004 we really got house fever and bought a big and beautiful 3000 square foot 2 level home. Great house, but my gosh, after we had McKinley it became very clear that we had gotten too much house. I mean we had three empty rooms and way too much space to keep clean. Plus we were getting tired of carting a baby up and down stairs all the time. So we put the house on the market and started looking for a smaller, one level home in the same area. Our home sold in one day and we found the house we wanted the same weekend. Everything worked out and now we LOVE our new home. It’s so much more cozy and easy to live in. Kim can be in the kitchen and I’m in the living room with McKinley but since it’s all open we’re just all right there together and man it’s great. We also have a great bonus room that I’d love to turn into a theater room soon.
Yep, 2005 was pretty crazy so I think we might try and slow it down a little in 2006. Spend some time together, work on our spiritual lives, lose some weight, concentrate on being a good Mommy and Daddy… and maintain this site too.
Check in periodically as we’ll be telling stories and sharing pictures and just generally talking about what’s going on in our lives and the lives of our circle of family and friends. And feel free to comment! We love hearing from everyone! Until the next post…
What is Kimberly listening to? FFH – Voice from Home
Keith Urban – Be Here
What is Kimberly reading? Cooking with Paula Deen
Parenting Magazine
What is Chris listening to? Ryan Adams – 29
The Mars Volta – Frances The Mute
What is Chris reading? A Million Little Pieces by James Frey
Inc. Magazine
What is McKinley listening to? Mom and Dad telling her we love her
Baby’s First Lullaby CD
What is being read to McKinley? Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown
Oh The Places You Will Go by Dr. Seuss
This is great guys! Way to go Chris! What a great resolution and you’re suceeding all so well. My resolution, besides loose my baby belly, is to try new things. I would like to tap into some faux painting, pick up knitting, and who knows maybe I will tackle building my own web page, too! You two have one beautiful baby girl. Loved the Christmas card we got! Maybe her and Aiden can hook up in about 20 years or so. Isn’t parenthood wonderful!!!!!!
Leah–>