About Us

In that picture above, you can see our little family… Mitch, Leslie, Kamri, Holden, and Calihan. Mitch and I (Hey! Leslie here) met at Eastern University on the first day of Freshman Orientation, dated for five years, got married in September of 2013, and the rest is history. We bought our first house in 2013, a cute town house, which is a milestone of sorts in our personal life and the life of this blog, as that was the catalyst for the start of our online documenting here on the internet! A few years later we sold that house and bought our current one, a perfectly suited, one-story brick ranch house, fulfilling our dream of living closer to our families. (I say all this because, after all, this blog started as a DIY/home renovations and updates blog.)

That move marks the beginning of our next chapter together, one that we cherish deeply, as it changed the course of our lives forever. One week after we closed on our second house and moved in, we found out we were pregnant with our first baby. You can see her in the picture frame that Mitch is holding. Kamri Blaire Thomas was born on December 28, 2016 and (unbeknownst to us and our medical team) entered the world unable to breathe on her own. After a month with our beautiful girl (on machines to keep her alive at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia), we learned that Kamri’s lungs had stopped developing on her own early on in the pregnancy. Kamri passed away on January 20, 2017 and is now safely in the arms of Jesus. She is the little sunshine that keeps us going and we are waiting (sometimes patiently, sometimes not so patiently) until we get to be with her again in eternity.

In May of 2017, we found out that we were pregnant again and a few months later, that Kamri had put in a request with God that she would have a brother. That’s him, in Mitch’s lap. Holden James Thomas was born on February 7, 2018 and is exactly everything that our little family of 3 needed. He is a ball of joy and smiles, laughs and energy, perceptiveness and understanding. He both looks and acts like his sister and like himself all at the same time, which we adore. On September 2, 2020, we welcomed our fifth member of the family, Calihan Rio Thomas (in my lap). Cali is our family goofball. You can generally find him sporting the biggest grin across his face, he LOVES to laugh, and gives very best hugs, wrapping his little arms tightly around your neck. He is also not picky about who he snuggles with and has been known to nuzzle his head right into the neck of whoever is holding him (doesn’t matter who) and just hang out there.

That’s us… our little tribe.

As for the blog, it’s been along for the ride since almost the very beginning. At first, we used this space to keep friends and families up to speed on the ways we were settling in and updating our first home. From there, we started sharing about the adventures happening in our personal lives… family vacations, holiday celebrations, personal updates, etc. After Kamri was born, the blog became a landing strip for day-to-day updates on Kamri’s life and medical status, and after she died, a safe place to be open and honest about our continuing journey with grief. More recently, we’ve decided to take it slow around here, but to continue to share our lives as we have the time and energy. Our home projects, renovations, family vacations and adventures, our kids’ milestones, our grief journey, and our everyday happenings… all the things we experience as the Thomas Family.

For those of you who have been here from the beginning, thanks for walking with us. For those of you who have just found us, thanks for joining. And welcome. Welcome to the family.

Here are a few posts to help get you oriented and give you a bit more detail into some of the aspects of our life we talked about over the years. Make yourself at home… we love that you’re here.

Looking for us on Social Media? Here we are…