The Thomas Family

Easter Morning

2009-04-28T23:50:00.000-07:00

This Easter was an interesting one! We got back from AR Thursday night, woke up Fri. morning to go to St. George had a puking kid (Hailey) by Fri. night (fam not happy with me!) was supposed to do an Easter egg hunt and play on Sat. but gave up and went home Sat. morning when we had kid #2 throwing up (Trey) who barfed the whole way home! So Easter morning was a mix of am I really feeling better? yes I am. No, wait I'm not! But we ended up having a nice day. We are so thankful for our Savior and we were able to appreciate the reason why we celebrate!!

Oh the excitement!! (notice the clothes still not unpacked in the back ground?? or maybe I should say ignore the clothes!!!)

enjoying the spoils.....

All in all a great day. And I apologize to my family for getting everyone sick!!

Birthday Celebrations

2009-04-28T23:25:00.000-07:00

My sister-in-law Jenny and her daughter Casidy share the same b-day on April 10th. They were down visiting in St. George from northern UT so we all got together at my brother Shane's house. Good times, good memories!

What a good lookin group!! :) My brothers Jason and Shane and my sister Marianne

Hailey and her cousin Erin ( Shane's oldest)

My daddy my best buddy!

I love my man :)

Hanging out at the house.....

2009-04-28T22:56:00.000-07:00

Trey Hangin out with Uncle Stacey (Chris' older bro) and Aunt Keri....

The Thomas cousins.....Karoline (Stacey and Keri's daughter), Hailey, Tanner, and Trey

Playing at the park

2009-04-28T22:41:00.000-07:00

Trey and his cousin Karoline at the park by Nanny's house.

2009-04-28T22:10:00.000-07:00

This is Chris' dads boat that he keeps in the back yard and takes out fishing on the river. Trey thought it was the coolest thing ever and put there especially for him!! He would spend forever out there climbing in sitting down saying woohoo and then climbing back out and starting all over again.....

In out, In out....

Busy little boy!

2009-04-24T23:25:00.000-07:00

Here we are just hanging out. These are the first pics we took with our new camera. Our old camera had got broken (Tanner) and I realized while we were at Georgia and Houston's that we didn't have pics to take home, so Chris and I hurried to buy a camera before we left. All of our pictures are of the last 2 days. Needless to say we had to recreate a lot of memories from earlier in the week!

Spring Break

2009-04-24T22:21:00.001-07:00

We had the opportunity to spend our spring break in Arkansas at Chris' parents house. I am so thankful that my kids have a place like this! They have so much fun fishing, playing outside, riding four wheelers, catching bugs, you name it if it can be done outside they get to do it!! They love spending time there and I love them to be able to. I will try to get all of the pics up from our vacation in next few days ( I know nanny will be excited to see them). Hopefully I will be able to get caught up with everything else too! There will probably be a ton of random posts :)

Climbing trees and planting a garden

2009-04-24T21:43:00.000-07:00

One thing there is a lot of in nanny and pa's back yard is land!! The kids had fun planting pretend gardens in the cotton fields....

Workin' hard and gettin' dirty!!

Chris' mom and dad have a really neat tree for climbing in their back yard. Tanner spent a lot of time up in that tree!

Every boy needs a tree like this!!

Some pics from Arkansas

2009-04-24T21:17:00.000-07:00

Chris taught the kids how to "shoot" (kinda) while we were in AR, they did a little target practice, poor juice bottle!! Chris showing the kids how its done....

Tanner was only allowed to pull the trigger but Hailey got to hold the gun, after of course they were told how dangerous guns are and that they are not toys.

They had so much fun and got to share something with their dad that he grew up doing, they were proud of what a good shot their daddy was!!

A job well done- you can't really see the holes but their there!!

A great lunch idea for kids!!

2009-02-26T20:17:00.000-08:00

I don't know why I have been a mother for almost 8 yrs and never thought of this!! It is so hard for me to come up with things that are quick and easy to make my kids for lunch. They love PBJ but I think a change from sandwiches is good once in awhile. So my neighbor told me what she was making for lunch and I thought it was genius, everyone else probably already has it on their menu. You take a tortilla spread some left over pizza or spaghetti sauce on it put on a little cheese and pepperoni melt it in the microwave roll it up and there you go, Pizza roll ups!! You can make them super healthy too, depending on what you put in them. Just add some cut up apples and yogurt and you've got a yummy lunch. My kids love them and eat them up. They are also good after school snacks. Give them a try!

A little update

2009-01-28T09:19:00.001-08:00

Well the last couple of months have been super crazy around this house. We had a great holiday season!! And the new year seams to be treating us good as well. We are all moved into our new house. It has been great being in here and it really feels like home. We moved the weekend of Thanksgiving, it was so crazy!!! I think it is almost harder to move down the street than from out of state!!! A few weeks after we moved I thought it would be a brilliant idea if we got a puppy, yes a puppy!! Mind you we have boxes everywhere and are still trying to pull off the whole Christmas season. So we have a new addition in our house a little (well not so little now!) boxer puppy named Jhett. Yes he is very cute and already house trained but he likes to chew on my kids which is rather annoying. He has been very sick ever since we got him and we almost lost him one week ( a rather expensive week I must say) but he pulled through and seems to be on the mend. Chris pretty much hates him on most days and if anyone knows our history with pets than we shall he how much longer he lasts!! The one animal we did have luck with now lives with the Jeffords!! My parents came to stay for Christmas and it was so fun to have them here and to be able to spend my moms birthday with her. The kids are doing good! Chris is all signed off on his positions at work, he did it super fast and I am so proud of him, as most of you know he is such an a amazing controller one of the best in his field. You can feel safe when flying in or out of Las Vegas and Chris is at work!!! (I like to brag about my honey) Well that is all I can think of for now, pictures are to follow soon now that you are all a little caught up!

Hello World!

2009-01-27T21:53:00.000-08:00

I am so excited to update the blog. I have missed posting, putting up memories and all that good stuff. So hopefully I will get caught up in the next couple of days!!

Change........

2008-11-15T17:58:00.000-08:00

Change.......

This is a week late, but better late than never. My name is Chris Thomas a lifetime Republican. I’ve served my country honorably for 9 years in the United States Marine Corps. I’ve spent time in more impoverished countries than I can count. I’ve been to war. I’ve seen bad things happen. I wouldn’t change a single thing that has happened to me because I know that because of what I’ve been through is the reason I am the person I am today. All that said I have to take offence to some things I’ve read and seen lately about our new President. Barrack Hussein Obama. You may not agree with what Mr. Obama stands for but you must believe that things can get better. I’ve read and watched on TV that Mr. Obama is a socialist. He’s gonna take money from the rich a give to the not-so-rich. That’s B.S. For my hardcore republicans that are still preaching this please explain to me how my party wasn’t doing this for the last year every time I went to fill up my mini van with $4.50 cheap gas and EXXON Mobile was allowed to report 4th quarter PROFITS of $400 Billion and not one single eyebrow was raised in D.C. during the republican regime. That seems a little like reverse socialism to me, but I digress…….. Please explain to me why we are still spending $40 Billion a month fighting a war in a country where there were no Weapons of Mass Destruction and they will never be free. Is it because we are afraid of Al Qaeda. I’m sorry but Al Qaeda didn’t live in Iraq until we started turning their backyards into glass. I’ve been there. I know how those people live. I do agree that Sadam was evil, but there are 20 more just like him all over the world . Should we go there next? Nope! Because Dick Cheany and Haliburton don’t have an interest in places like Darfur. For those who don’t know about Darfur it’s an area of Sudan. Sudan is in the country…I mean continent of Africa (sorry Gov Palin I was tired and all this typing made me confused) where almost a half a Million people have been exterminated for no reason. Probably twice that many have starved to death as well. There’s no business in places like that, but Iraq has Black Gold, Texas Tea whatever you’d like to call it and Haliburton has just the thing for that! Oh yea....2025 days since President Bush declared Mission Accomplished in Iraq. I’ll get off my soap box now because I could go on for a week and still not cover everything. Like our economy…..It’s funny how people can freak out about how the Democrats and Obama are gonna tax us and we’re all gonna be poor. Oh I’m sorry but under Clinton we had a surplus almost to the tune of $100 Billion a year. 8 years later we have an economy in the tank and a deficit of something around $700 Billion. I don’t know about you, but I’d rather pay an extra hundred dollars or two a year on my income taxes and know I’ve got a job tomorrow as to have what we have today. I’m sure the men and women at GM, Ford, Joe's Gas Station, Wonder Bread, ect., ect., feel the same.

If you watched the election on November 4th you should be proud of this country. Don’t be angry. We proved to the world that night that we’re back. Ready, once again, to lead the world. Did you see the celebrations the next morning from places like Cairo, Egypt, London, England, Tokyo, Japan. The world watched as the United States lifted one of it’s black clouds and elected a Black man President of the United States of America. Obama may not have been your choice, but don’t let his name or color scare you. We need to heal the black eye we have in the world and I believe he will do that.

Pray for our troops and our country……….

Chris Thomas
Proud Conservative Independent

p.s I don’t think President Obama will be aborting any babies with the guns he steals from us either. And if gays wanna get married they should have to suffer just like the rest of us.

That last one was a joke honey……I Love You Very Much!

Fun night with Tanner

2008-11-13T19:01:00.000-08:00

Tanner and I had a mommy/son date tonight. It was so much fun and he felt like such a big boy!! We went to see Madagascar 2, it was pretty cute. I am so glad that I took the opportunity to spend some "quality" time with him. He truly is such a special boy. He loves his brother and sister so much and is always look out for them. He is getting big enough now that we can actually have a conversation, he says the cutest things! Today in the car while we were running errands he had some peppermints, he handed me one and said..."here mom, this one is for you"
I said " oh thanks Tanner, how did you get so sweet?!", Tanner replied, " oh I don't know, probably because you give me hugs all the time". I feel so blessed for my big boy!! I am so glad he had so much fun at the movie. Being in the middle I feel like he gets looked over a lot, and I really want him know how special he is. While we were walking into the theater he was carefully caring his drink, sipping as he went. He looked up at me and said, "oohhh this is gonna be so much fun!!!!." And it truly was, I love you so much Tanner!

Party fun

2008-11-10T22:45:00.000-08:00

One of our friends from our neighborhood had a b-day party (like 3 weeks or more ago!) at pump it up, it's a fun place with giant blow up bounce things and slides. Trey of course was only interested in the drinking fountain. He was really proud of himself when he figured out he could make the water come out. Although he was super obsessed and I couldn't keep him out of it, it was a good thing because at least I didn't have to worry about him getting run over by all the big kids

It looks like Tanner is looking for a quick escape from the camara....

You can tell that neither one of them wanted to hold still for a picture. I'm sure they are thinking seriously mom can't I just go play!!

Under construction??

2008-11-09T22:04:00.000-08:00

I guess that is the right terminology?! I am really working hard on trying to get my blog the way I want it. I am kinda just going along, trying different things and getting it all figured out. I guess you could call it trial by error! Hopefully I will learn from my mistakes!! Things might not look just right for awhile but please know I am not going crazy I am just working it all out :o)

Inside shots

2008-11-02T22:58:00.000-08:00

This is our courtyard in the front of the house

Here is my mothers/craft/ whatever the heck I want it to be room!! This is right off the kitchen

The kitchen, I can't wait to see it all finished

Here are our cabinets, they are called knotty Alder (sp?)

upstairs game room and looking down the hall at the bedrooms

Almost finished!!

2008-11-02T22:53:00.001-08:00

We only have about 4 weeks until we move! Things are coming right along.

My Little Poser

2008-11-02T22:47:00.001-08:00

Hailey just cracks me up sometimes! She will find any opportunity to pose for the camera!!

It's always fun with Nanny and Pa!!

2008-11-02T22:14:00.000-08:00

During the last week of Sept. Chris' mom and dad came to visit from Arkansas. We were so glad to have them. My kids have such a special relationship with them and I am so thankful for them and all they do for us! We were excited to show off our new home town.

While they were here we took them up to see beautiful Red Rock Canyon. This is only about 10 or 15 min from our house. It was a good time and a beautiful drive, I know I definitely didn't think of this when I thought of Vegas. You can actually see the red rocks from our neighborhood!

We also went to Bonnie Springs which is an old country town. They had a little petting zoo and a pond with ducks. There is also a trian ride and they have shoot outs and old buildings, all sorts of western stuff. I think maybe they were having a day off when we went, maybe it was still too hot because there wasn't a lot going on that day!!!

Trey had so much fun having alone time while the big kids were at school....

We had such a good time during their visit! We miss you Nanny and Pa!!!

Busy doing nothing!!

2008-11-02T22:09:00.000-08:00

So every time over the past few weeks that I have sat to blog something has happened. The kids need something, the hubby needs something, you know how it goes!! I have had so much going on, so there is tons to write about. My plan is to try to get caught up this week, we'll see if I can!!

Quote of the day

2008-10-07T14:31:00.000-07:00

While we where watching conference this weekend I told Tanner, "look Tanner its our prophet Pres. Monson, lets listen to what he has to say." Tanner replied, " Yea! It's Pres. Muffin!"

I think Pres. Monson would appreciate that and get a good laugh out of it too!

2008-10-02T20:24:00.000-07:00

Best pic of the owl cupcakes, my moms in the middle is what they are supposed to look like

Owl Cupcakes

2008-10-02T16:03:00.000-07:00

For everyone who was wondering about the owl cupcakes here are the directions:

You will need 3 zip lock bags for the white, chocolate frosting (we decided it would look better to have a dark and light choco to add dimension for the feathers)

You will also need about 20 oreos for one batch of cupcakes. Carefully separate the oreos (we used a knife), cut the side without the filling in half.
Place the side with the filling on the cupcake for the eyes. put a little of the white frosting on the cream filling to add dimension and the pupils are junior mints(put junior mints on top of frosting). It looks really cute if you kinda make him cross eyed.
Place the oreo cut in half on either side (at the top of ) the other oreo to make his eyes look bigger ( I didn't really understand this part, my mom was trying to explain it to me over the phone. For those of you who know my mom that will explain my confusion)
Last, you put a banana runt into the cupcake to make his beak, we didn't have any runts so I used a candy corn.
I hope this is helpful and not too confusing....Happy cupcake making!

All framed up....

2008-09-23T21:01:00.001-07:00

Well its all framed and we even have windows!! They are moving right along. We got all of our selections picked out at the design center, I can't wait to see it all put together. They told us it might even be ready before Thanksgiving. Yahoo!!

Look at all the progress....so exciting!

Too Funny!!

2008-09-23T20:51:00.000-07:00

Does anyone else find it funny that of all the neighborhoods I could have picked, I picked the one with this sweet mountain view from my street! At least deep down inside I am 12 and I can appreciate it! Remind you of anything?? I can't possibly be the only one who sees the resemblance....

My poor hubby!!

2008-09-23T20:30:00.001-07:00

Here is Chris limping along, poor guy! Even with a broken foot he still does daddy duty!!

Poor Chris! He broke his foot (by kicking a pool chair, I told him we need to come up with a more manly story!) while he was in Miami. When he got home, after a few days of convincing, he finally went to the Dr. who told him he had 5 broken bones in his foot!! I do have to say he makes that boot look good :)!

Fun with grandma Gini

2008-09-19T22:37:00.000-07:00

My mom came to stay with me for a few days while Chris was in Miami. So of course we had to make cupcakes!! Tanner had so much fun baking with grandma, she brought all the stuff to make them and then decorate them like owls for Halloween. How fun is that?!

The finished product...yum, yum. :o)

A little bit of fall with our owl cupcakes and pumpkins, I love this time of year!

My friend snowball

2008-09-19T22:24:00.000-07:00

Tanner is having so much fun at preschool. His teacher Miss Jenn is really fun and they do lots of neat crafts and songs and activities. One of the things she does is each week one of the kids gets to bring home snowball. He comes with his own bag and journal that the kids get to color pictures in of all the things they did with snowball that week. Tanner got picked to go first, one of the pics he colored was of him and snowball in monkey suits!! He felt so proud and happy and had so much fun with his friend snowball!

4 yr old and clippers....not a good idea!

2008-09-19T21:56:00.000-07:00

WARNING!!! This is what happens when your husband leaves his beard trimmer out after shaving and your 4 yr old finds them!! Tanner thought it would be a good idea to give himself a hair cut. I guess I wasn't paying enough attention to my kids this day, notice the cheetos on his face from lunch and yes he is still in his jammies. This all happened at about 4:00! I was laughing too much to get him in trouble, however we did have a talk about how only big people can cut hair and he promised he would never cut his (or anyone else's) hair ever again!

He is such a stinker! I didn't know what else to do so I finished off the job, yes he got a hair cut with a beard trimmer....

Even when he is naughty he is still a cutie!!

What did I do?? I'm totally innocent.....

Building a house!

2008-09-03T22:39:00.000-07:00

Building a new house

2008-09-03T22:24:00.000-07:00

Chris and I have had a pretty fun couple of weeks. We have been renting since march when we moved here. We really wanted to get to know the area before we committed to a house! We got really lucky because we love the neighborhood we are living in, it was the first house we looked at here. We only looked at one other house but we felt like we were supposed to be here. Still we really wanted to spend some time in the area before we bought a home. Well we had an opportunity to buy a home here, it is right around the corner from where we are renting so Hailey doesn't have to switch schools, or friends, or anything!! They were in the process of building the home but we purchased it in time to pick out everything for the house. They told us it will be ready in December, we are so excited!! Even though building a home is stressful it is also lots of fun. We really feel blessed and that the Lord has been guiding us these past few months. There has been lots of change with the move from Texas, a new job and now a new house, but like I said we know that this is where we are supposed to be!

2nd grade!

2008-09-03T21:45:00.000-07:00

Hailey at her desk in her new classroom, her teacher Ms. Prietz is super nice!

2008-09-03T21:39:00.000-07:00

Pictures with friends before school. Hailey has made so many good friends here in vegas, we are really enjoying being here in this neighborhood. It is such a neat place for our kids to live!

My big 2nd grader!!

2008-09-03T21:30:00.001-07:00

Hailey was so excited for her fist day as a 2nd grader!! We had a special breakfast with all our friends from the neighborhood, it was such a fun way to kick off the year!

Oh yeah, he looks cute and innocent......

2008-09-03T21:15:00.000-07:00

But he's not!!! Words can not explain this little boy!!! He must think that he is a puppy because he likes to escape out my moms doggie door, wait where is Trey?!? outside in the back yard eating rocks, how did he get there?! out the doggie door!! Besides escaping his interests also include climbing things no other child would think of and playing with knifes. I put my sharp knifes up high out of reach, but refer back to the climbing on things no other baby could possibly climb!! And he does it all with that innocent smile that melts my heart and looks at you with those mile long eye lashes!! He is going to get away with so much in life!!

Our New House!

2008-08-30T20:55:00.001-07:00

Well here it is. Isn't it GREAT! We chose it because of the open floor plan. It's not very good when it rains.....luckily we live in the desert. The back yard leaves a little to be desired, but Tyff and I told the kids they could ramp their bikes on the sweet jumps we've got in the front of the house or maybe throw some of those rusty nails at each other! The builder sure left a lot of those laying around. The neighborhood is really nice! This guy named George, who keeps telling me his name is pronounced "Whore-Gay" is very cool! He has 5 or 6 brothers who keep coming over in this sweet 1986 Chevy pick-up truck. They spend most of the morning talking real fast and drinking beer. Then they'll leave. Sometimes they even leave us more of those rusty nails. He even said that one day our house will be as sweet as the one on the left of us. I don't know about that, but we can dream, right! Hope everyone is doing O.K.

For my Mom!

2008-08-30T20:41:00.000-07:00

This picture was taken a few days ago in front of our house in Vegas. Tanner needs a haircut! Everyone is getting so big. They grow up really fast! Hailey just started 2nd grade and so far so good. She did have to come home early on Friday because she had a "tummy ache" Later that night Tyff and I found out that "tummy ache" really means my principle had to tell me to get off the playground and get to the lunchroom. Anyhow.......hopefully we won't have anymore of those. Tanner starts pre-school on Tuesday. His teacher is really neat. I think she is in the Stake Primary Presidency so that's good. Tanner is so excited! He loves going to school. This will be really good for him. And Tiffany! Trey is so sweet. All he wants to do is play big boy stuff and snuggle. Tiffany and I are so lucky and blessed to have 3 great kids! We miss everyone so much.

what a lame blog!!

2008-08-12T13:43:00.000-07:00

Okay I have been looking around on everyone's blogs, and they are amazing!! I'm still trying to figure it all out, Natalie said we could have a blog date and she would help me with the rest. I wonder if she really knows what she's getting into!! I can't wait to get our pics up, like Chris said our camara got stolen along with all of our recent photos. But we are working towards some pics for sure! So until then I guess everyone will have to make due with my lame blog!!

Viva Las Vegas.......

2008-08-06T20:58:00.001-07:00

Well here we are in Fabulous Las Vegas Nevada! We've been here since March. Work is going good. I just got checked out on my first 2 departure sectors this week. That's good and bad, I guess. One step closer to not training and guaranteed overtime now. I hate overtime! It's really hot in Vegas. I forgot how bad living in the desert was in August. I pray every nite that I'll wake up and it'll be December. Oh well.....that's life. I miss my mom and dad a lot! I wish they could live closer to us. The kids are getting so big. Every time I turn around one of them has a new trick. I LOVE them so much!!!!!! Hopefully soon we'll get some new pics up of them. I would do it tonight, but our digital camera was stolen out of the van a couple nights ago :-( That was the second time our cars have been broken into since we moved here. Both times were right in our driveway. Oh well....I guess that's why they call it Sin City. *Chris*

Here I go...

2008-08-06T14:08:00.000-07:00

Well I finally decided to start a blog. I've been considering it for some time now but I have to admit I was really intimidated. I'm not very computer savy!! But when I saw my friend Natalies I decided to give it a go! I'm excited about having a place to record all the fun and not so fun things in life. It seems like time is flying by and I don't want to miss anything, I know that there are so many small things that happen that equal up to so many memories. Plus with family and friends spread out so far I am excited about having a way to keep them updated and close!