Community Event: Trunk-or-Treat

Join me, Amanda Todd with Realty One Group and team Saturday, October 24th at 6pm for our 3rd annual Trunk-or-Treat event at Twelve Bridges Elementary School! 

This event is a community favorite and I love seeing how creative the families get with their cars!

In order for this event to work, we need folks to participate and decorate their cars! The more trunks decorated, the better and more successful the event will be. 

If you have never been to or participated in a Trunk-or-Treat event, here is how it works: Each family or individual decorates the trunk of their car in a Halloween theme, and the kids walk from car to car to trick-or-treat!

I will be giving prizes and awards to every car who participates, and a grand prize will be given to the most spooky or best themed car! Check next month’s newsletter for full details. 

This event is free to attend, so feel free to call and invite friends outside of Twelve Bridges!

Register to attend here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/trunk-or-treat-amanda-todd-with-realty-one-group-tickets-18459796749

Alyssa's Blessing

I can't believe Alyssa's already three weeks old! It really is true that the last month of pregnancy goes by the slowest, and the first month of the baby's life goes by the fastest! Alyssa is still a great sleeper and a very peaceful, content baby!

We blessed Alyssa on Sunday, and it was wonderful! Her daddy gave her the most beautiful blessing! We had lots of family here to celebrate, which was lots of fun. Kate and Luke had tons of fun playing with their cousins Caleb and Emma. We were very sad to see them go home!!!

We have yet to do pictures of just Alyssa in her blessing dress. When we do, I will post those. We got a few pictures on the day of the blessing, but it was a little crazy. Here are a couple of the decent ones. The wind was blowing really hard and the sun was bright. . . so not many turned out really well.
The whole group-- Luke wasn't too thrilled about not going to class. He made a mad dash for nursery as soon as Sacrament meeting was over. Randy had to go get him out and he was very mad!!!!



Awesome big sister! She was excited to hold Alyssa in her fancy dress.



The sun was a little bright. Luke only wanted Randy's phone, but was still screaming the entire time.


Two cute cousins picking dandelions together.


The closest to a decent family picture we got that day!


Another try at a family picture.

All the guys and one cute lady!


Grandma Thomason, Kate, Alyssa, and Amanda

Almost 2 weeks old!

I can't believe Alyssa is almost two weeks old! We had to move her out of our room last night because she won't stop making her cute little baby noises!! She is SOUND asleep, but grunts all night long. So we moved her out (I really wasn't ready for it, but Randy decided we needed some sleep) and she slept almost the entire night! She didn't wake up until 4:30am, got up to eat, then went back to sleep until 6:30, ate, then woke up at 8:30! I can handle a schedule like that!!! She is growing SO fast. I wish I knew how much she weighed right now. I would guess somewhere in the 10 lbs. range. Her umbilical cord fell off last week (much earlier than my other kids, but that is because it got ripped when we were trying to figure out how to get the clamp off of it that the hospital had left on!), so she got a big kid bath!

The kids are doing REALLY well with her. I'll find Luke laying on the floor next to her talking to her or kissing her. He really likes her. Kate still thinks she's the best thing in the world. She is still trying to figure out this only milk diet. She asked me yesterday if Alyssa could drink water. She was really confused that Alyssa couldn't even drink water yet! She is very interested in looking in Alyssa's mouth to see no teeth (she and Luke are so close, she can't remember Luke without teeth). It's so fun seeing her figure these things out!


Luke loves to watch Kate play on starfall.com. I'm sure he could do the games about as well as she could!


Kate is learning how to climb trees.


Luke is all boy. He always has a stick and loves to poke things, especially ant hills. He is OBSESSED with ants. Walks are a bit of a challenge because he stops at every anthill. In Louisiana, that's about every two feet.


Alyssa and Dad all snuggled up.


Alyssa's first big kid bath.


Kate is always the mother; Luke's just in it for the cool toys. :)


Immediately after church both Kate and Luke ran in to find Alyssa. It is so cute to me how much they both love her!

Baby Alyssa

It's taken me forever, but here she is!!! Alyssa Carolyn arrived on Tuesday, April 7th at 11:15am. My labor was short and to the point! Three and a half hours (only 45 minutes of hard contractions) after my pitocin started, she was born!!! She was 8 lbs. 7 oz. and 21" long. She is the best baby I've ever seen!!!! We are so happy to have her here!!!

Here are lots of pictures. I posted so many mainly for me, since this is my journal of sorts. Shows how great I am at keeping up a journal. Enjoy them! We're sure enjoying her!!!



One vernix covered little girl! I think she would have stayed in there for a really long time!

It was so fun, I'd never gotten to hold one of my babies this quickly!


This is the first one of our kids that Randy got to cut their cord.


One proud Daddy!!!


8 lbs. 7 oz. 21" long. If only they'd weighed her before she peed everywhere right after she was born. I would have gotten a few more ounces!!


Making sure there are ten fingers and ten toes!


Kate's first time to see Alyssa. She was more concerned about me being in bed and why I didn't want to get up. Alyssa was not quite two hours old.


She already knew what to do the second she got Alyssa in her arms: Give her lots of kisses!


Such a pretty baby! She was about two hours old and still not dressed yet. We really did bring clothes for her. We were just having so much fun holding her.


Kate was excited to take pictures of Alyssa with her own camera.


Truly the world's best big sister!

Our first almost family picture. Luke was taking a nap, so he didn't get to see Alyssa until the next day.




4 hours old.


Peacefully sleeping, as usual.


Daddy is already teaching us to make funny faces.


Alyssa's first bath-- almost 24 hours old. She slept through the night her first night!


Ready to go home!!


Luke's first look at her-- He said, "Oh, Alyssa's out of Mom's tummy" like it was just how he expected it.


Then on to more important matters, like watching whatever movie was on in the car.


All three kids together for the first time. Luke doesn't care about anything except the movie.


Randy trying to get everyone in from the car. It was nap time for Luke-- this is why we didn't interrupt his nap the day before to come to the hospital.



Kate was dying to hold her the second we got inside.


The three girls together. I'll be thrilled to lose the fat baby face!!!


Kate wanted to tuck Alyssa in with her own pink blankey.


A bit of a size difference with both girls in Alyssa's crib. She won't be sleeping there for a few months.


Two sisters, already the best of friends.


Kate was fascinated with Alyssa getting in her jamas. Kate is really sure Alyssa is the coolest doll.


Already the little mother.


The tail of the tornado that hit our neighborhood on Thursday night. The damage around our neighborhood is pretty impressive, although no houses were damaged.


Easter egg hunt on Saturday with Grandma Todd



Our attempt at Easter pictures. Kate and Alyssa have matching Easter dresses. I'm having way too much fun having two girls to put in matching clothes!!!



The closest we got to getting everyone looking in the same place at the same time. Even Alyssa looked!


We tried our best!!!